b.1936, Lismore, NSW

Robyn Mountcastle studied at the Central Technical College (1950–52), receiving the Godfrey Rivers Medal in 1952. Mountcastle worked as a press artist at Brisbane’s Telegraph newspaper from 1952 to 1958, before travelling to London, where she studied at the Byam Shaw School of Art and the London School of Printing and Graphic Design (1959–61). Gaining experience as a graphic designer, she returned to Brisbane in 1961 and began work as a freelance graphic artist. She subsequently taught at the Queensland College of Art (1972–74), and received a creative arts associate diploma from the Brisbane College of Advanced Education (1977–80). Mountcastle’s interest by this time was focused on tapestry weaving, and she moved to Melbourne to become a full-time weaver at the Victorian Tapestry Workshop (1986–92), before establishing herself as a freelance designer–weaver in 1993. Mountcastle largely gave up painting by the early 1970s.