The artist's painting of the Agar Robartes children hangs in the family home, Lanhydrock, near St Austell, Cornwall in the care of the National Trust.
Merritt was an American figure painter and etcher who first exhibited at the RA from 1871. She has the distinction of painting as a memorial to her husband and teacher/mentor Henry Merritt (1822-1877), the first painting by a woman artist to be acquired for the nation by the Trustees of the Chantry Bequest. It was Love Locked Out, exhibited at the RA in 1890. She won many awards and medals and was a part of the celebrity art circles with artists such as Frederic LEIGHTON, Lawrence ALMA-TADEMA and James WHISTLER, well-known to Cornish-based painters of the day. Though as yet not established for certain, she was probably known to Elizabeth Adela FORBES.
There is no evidence except for the painting mentioned above wherein she depicted the children of a Cornish family, that she actually had a Cornish connection. She died in Hurstbourne Tarrant, Hampshire, after some years of failing eyesight.
Margaret Merry grew up in Falmouth, beginning her art training at Falmouth School of Art. She subsequently obtained a diploma in Art & Design from Hornsey College of Art in London and gained her teaching qualifications at the University of Bristol. She lived in Truro for over thirty years, painting and writing.
She has lived in Spain since 2002. Her paintings have been exhibited in London, New York, Tokyo and Paris and have been bought by collectors world-wide.
Born in Christchurch, New Zealand, Merton was educated at Christ's College, and continued his art studies at the Canterbury College School of Art, working between London, England and New Zealand from 1905-10. During European visits, he spent extensive time in the Netherlands, Cornwall and Brittany. He attended sketching lessons taught by Frances Hodgkins in Concarneau, and while in France between 1910-13, he studied at the Academie Colarossi, and also with P Tudor-Hart.
Merton married the American artist Ruth Calvert Jenkins in 1914, and they had two sons (one born in France, the other in New York) before his wife died in 1921. He then travelled in France, and based himself again in England, where he later died after a long illness. His titles include St Ives, Barnoon Hill; St Ives and St Michael's Mount (all dated 1910).
A painter who with colleague John MITCHELL organised the opening event of the fourth annual Newlyn Arts Festival which was the Open Art Exhibition held at NAG (Nov 2010). Her own work was also selected for the show, A Bird's Eye View: Hell's Mouth, by the selector, Barrie COOK.
The artist was born into a Quaker family in Glastonbury, Somerset, and during his childhood in Bath, he was taught by Augustin Edouart (1796-1861), the best French exponent of silhouette profiles.
In 1834 he emigrated to New York, and worked assidiously in the main centres of Boston, Philadelphia, Washington and Saratoga Springs, becoming a naturalised American citizen. Family reference materials show that his charges for a full body profile were $1.75 and $1.50 for sitting profile, with children being half price. He was to produce thousands of these each year, moving from city to city. He signed his silhouettes as either S Metford or Sam'l Metford.
He had returned to England (1844) and was living at 6 North Parade, Penzance, as a lodger (aged 40) when the Census of 1851 was taken, sharing alongside one Guillaume Thomazie, a Professor of French and Italian from Vannes, France. By 1853 he had moved to Congresbury, Somerset to care for his blind father.
There are many examples of his work throughout the US and the UK, and especially in the South West of Britain. He embellished his work in gold, yellow-ochre or Chinese white [Peggy McClard ref]
The artist died at Weston super Mare.
Meuli began his full-time painting career in Cornwall in 1982, remaining here for six years. Now living in Glasgow, Scotland, where he has lived since 1996, a great many travels and achievements can be charted for this artist and art historian.
Born in Poole, Dorset, Jonathan attended Bryanston School, Cambridge (BA 1980), and the Ruskin School of Drawing, Oxford, and throughout his life has drawn and painted, both figurative and abstract subjects which can only loosely described as landscape-townscapes. The depth of his work in colouration and style; the intelligence of his perspectives, are felt immediately in his powerful palette. His work is rooted in history and the today, in the best sense, and tells stories of the development of the urban, industrial and the post-industrial over the rural idyll. Realism and the strength of image are the keynotes of his work.
His book, Shadow House: Interpretations of Northwest Coast Art (2000) is a study of Native American art, based on his academic work for a PhD from the University of East Anglia (1996). He continues exhibiting in solo and mixed shows, primarily in Scotland.
The earliest pupil found by Iris Green to be accepted into the Forbes School of Painting in 1900, Meynell subsequently became a writer rather than a painter. Everard was one of the children of Alice and Wilfred Meynell, the former of which wrote illustrated articles about Newlyn and its artist colony in the Art Journal (see Hardie 2009 for reprints) of 1889.
Newlyn subjects depicted by this artist identified; Benezit notices a painter of marine subjects by this name, a Belgian by country of origin. No further information is currently available.
When Francis G WOOD (1915-19) was Headmaster of the Penzance School of Art, the educational policy instituted by the Town Council was to offer more vocational teaching. One example of this was a needlework class, led by Miss Michell.
Born on 22 May 1824 in Redruth, Cornwall, a Newlyn title is known for this artist dated 1877 (Bednar). He died on 30 October 1909, age 85, in London (GRO). No further information is currently available at present.
Chrissie is a well-established painter of coastal scenery, including coves and harbours with their colourful boats and dinghies. Born in Lincoln, she studied at Barnsley College of Art, subsequently graduating from Falmouth School of Art in 1986.
Having graduated from Cornwall College with a BA (Hons) in Contemporary Creative Practice, Fijke Middendorp currently works from Kwowji Studios in Redruth.
Frank Middleditch was born in Edmonton, Middlesex. He was educated at Stationers' Company's School in Hornsey, after which he won a scholarship to Hornsey College of Art. He trained as an industrial designer and was a member of the Society of Industrial Artists (MSIA).
From 1929 to 1932 he was in India, serving as a volunteer in the Calcutta Light Horse Regiment. During World War II he was in the Home Guard (as a private) from 1943 to 1944.
A radio he designed for Bush, while he worked for De La Rue, was in the 1946 'Britain Can Make It' exhibition at the V&A. The model, originally in black, became immensely popular and was then produced in several colours, as well as for the export market with translated words; a mahogany-coloured version is in the permanent collection of the V&A.
In 1935 he married a classically trained singer, Felise. During the 1950s they were living in Lympstone near Exmouth in Devon. Alongside Clifford FISHWICK and Amy ELTON, he became a member of the Kenn Group, a society of professional artists based in Exeter, whose group shows were usually held in the city's Royal Albert Memorial Museum (RAMM).
In 1962 he and Felise moved to Cornwall and were living at Fenton Pits, outside Bodmin, and sometime after 1973 they moved to Egloshayle, Wadebridge. In 1963 Frank had a solo show of paintings at the Poly, Falmouth, and a solo show of engraved slate, collages and drawings in the RAMM in 1971. During a long artistic career, his work was also shown at the New English Art Club, Royal Academy, Royal West of England Academy, Birmingham City Gallery and Brighton City Gallery.
He died in Truro in 1996.
After studying at Scarborough College of Art and Exeter College of Art, Jon taught pottery for three years at a Residential school in Devon before finally settling in Lelant, near St Ives. His design ideas for pots are realised through a programme of meditation on the 'Tree of Life', his themes the embodiment of images and symbols arising from this approach; he works intensely for a period of weeks, writing and drawing, to make the ideas come to life. He believes strongly in the importance of design, and is inspired by diverse cultural influences ranging from the Incas through Egyptian hieroglyphs to Native American art, using a variety of metal lustres, gold, platinum and copper with various combinations of lustre glazes and semi-precious stones. All his pots need several firings to bring the layers of lustre to full strength and realise the idea to the detail.
Marilyn Middlemiss obtained an Honours degree from St Albans School of Art in 1992. This was followed by an MA in Contemporary Visual Arts at Falmouth College of Art. She has studied, lived and worked in Cornwall since the late 1990s.
She created the Salt Gallery, Hayle, and then the Salt Gallery Cornwall online: www.saltgallerycornwall.co.uk.
Lucy Middleton is a member of Art Space Gallery, a co-operative group based in St Ives.
Alan James Middleton was born in Coventry in 1926, the son of the Cornish born artist, James Charles MIDDLETON. He trained as an architect with the Architectural Association School. He exhibited at RA, RWS, RBA, and PS. He died in 1998.
A small group of his works and by his father from his estate were sold by W H Lane & Son in April 2001.
J C Middleton was born at Redruth on 7th May 1894, the son of a commercial clerk. By 1911 he is recorded as a 16 year old art student studying at Redruth School of Art (1910-15) under Phil Whiting. He later studied at Birmingham School of Art (1920-25) and at Royal College of Art. In 1920 he married Gladys Goldsworthy at Kings Norton RD and they lived for a time at Coventry where their son A J MIDDLETON was born in 1926.
He later lived at Wallington, Surrey and became a member of both the Wapping Group of Artists and the Langham Sketching Club. He exhibited between 1933 and 1938 at RA, ROI, RI, SMA and with other local groups. He died in the Sutton - Wallington area in 1969.
Juliet Middleton-Batts works from a studio in St Ives. She describes herself as 'a storyteller who likes to represent the hidden or overlooked in unexpected ways'.
She has an MA in Contemporary Art from Plymouth University and her work has been exhibited in London and the south west.
A graduate of London's Royal College of Art, Colin Mier was a practising illustrator while lecturing at Kingston University, Kent Institute of Art & Design and course advisor at De Montfort University. In 2013 he moved to Falmouth with his family, to focus on printmaking, in particular, screenprinting. He maintains a base in London which enables him to continue working with contacts there.
His work has been exhibited widely in the UK and beyond.
A member of the industrial class working with copper, before World War I.
Tracey Miles was born in Wiltshire and studied in Cardiff, where in 1986 she gained a BA in Fine Art, followed by a PGCE in 2003. She lives in Constantine, near Falmouth and works from Krowji Studios, Redruth. Her images are based around the female form and she is an accomplished portrait painter.
June Miles was an outstanding landscape and still life painter, with a soft, gentle but vividly colourful palette. Her exhibitions represented work carried out not only in Cornwall, but also in France, where she and her late husband Paul MOUNT maintained a second home. Both her daughters, Helen FEILER and Christine FEILER, are also artists of greatly refined sensitivity: Helen with her jewellery and textiles, and Christine with her porcelain and ceramic exhibition pieces.
June was born in London, the daughter of William Miles, a Royal Marine engineer, and his wife Constance (nee Temple). She spent the first six years of life near Hong Kong. She gained a place at the Slade School of Art at the age of 17, where she studied painting under Randolph Schwabe. During WWII she drew maps for the Admiralty Drawing Office.
The artist was the first wife of painter Paul FEILER, and the couple moved to Bristol where their three children (Anthony, Helen and Christine) were born. She moved to Cornwall when the couple separated, though she continued to teach at Bristol Polytechnic and the Folk House in Bristol. An superb portraitist, she displayed an unwavering drive and determination that sustained her work and prevented her qualities as a painter from being overshadowed by marriages to two well-established artists.
In 1978 she married the sculptor Paul MOUNT and together they had studios in St Just-in-Penwith, where they also lived. At that stage June became fascinated with still life, one of the two major dedicated themes of her working life along with the landscapes. She worked directly on her canvases, letting them evolve as she worked, without using sketches.
June was a medallist at the Women's International Art Club in Paris (1968) and her work is in permanent collections in the Plymouth and Bristol City art galleries, and in the Royal West of England Academy (RWA). She had a long series of solo shows including at the RWA, the Beaux Arts Gallery in Bath, Newlyn Gallery, Penwith Gallery, and Lemon Street Gallery in Truro.
In a review in The Cornishman in 2004, Frank Ruhrmund wrote: '... there is a sense of peace in her work that passes all understanding ... An artist who has never courted publicity, never owned a trumpet of her own let alone blown it, June Miles must be one of the most retiring, unassuming and consequently one of the most underrated of the many artists practising in Penwith.'
Paul Mount died in 2009. June Miles was known for her exceptional warmth and steady kindness to family and friends. She died, aged 96, in 2021.