31 Facts About Colin Middleton

Colin Middleton was born in 1910 in Victoria Gardens in north Belfast, the only child of damask designer Charles Colin Middleton.

Colin Middleton attended the nearby Belfast Royal Academy until 1927 and then continued his studies with night classes at Belfast School of Art where he trained in design under the Cornish artist Newton Penprase.

However Colin Middleton found the college too traditional in outlook, as his first influence, his Father, had been a follower of European Modernism, particularly the Impressionists.

Colin Middleton showed his first works with the Ulster Academy of Arts in 1931, where he was to exhibit frequently until the late nineteen-forties.

Colin Middleton first came to public attention with the inclusion of his works in the groundbreaking inaugural exhibition of the Ulster Unit at Locksley Hall, Belfast in December 1933.

Colin Middleton was a poet and writer, whom along with his wife, was an active member of the Northern Drama League in the 1930s, with whom he designed sets.

Colin Middleton became a follower of Van Gogh and of James Ensor after viewing exhibitions in London and Belgium respectively.

Colin Middleton completed three paintings immediately after the Belfast Blitz and the trauma of the events prevented him from working for six months before his work was included in a portfolio of lithographs published by the Ulster Academy in December 1941 to raise money for rebuilding the Ulster Children's and Women's Hospital which had been destroyed in the Blitz earlier in the year.

In 1945 Colin Middleton was married for the second time, to Kate Giddens, after both had been named co-respondents at the Belfast High Court a few months earlier, in civil servant Lionel P Barr's application for a decree-nisi.

Colin Middleton was a founding member of the Northern Ireland branch of the Artists International Association, who showed at the Belfast Municipal Gallery in spring 1945.

Colin Middleton's work was displayed in New York's Associated American Artists Galleries in 1947 with a selection of works chosen by the Dublin art critic Theodore Goodman that included paintings by his Northern contemporaries Dan O'Neill, George Campbell, Gerard Dillon and Patrick Scott.

Colin Middleton retired from the family business that year to devote his time to painting.

Colin Middleton had worked at the business since his Father's death in 1933.

Colin Middleton then took his wife and child to live and work on John Colin Middleton Murry's Suffolk commune for a short period, before returning to Belfast in 1948.

In 1949 Colin Middleton showed his first works at the Oireachtas, where he was to return periodically until 1977.

Colin Middleton later designed sets for the Circle Theatre and the Lyric Theatres, including the sets for a series of WB Yeats' plays in 1970, and Sean O'Casey's Red Roses for Me in 1972, both at the latter.

In 1952 Colin Middleton exhibited alongside Daniel O'Neill, Nevill Johnson, Gerard Dillon and Thurloe Connolly at the Tooth Galleries in London.

Colin Middleton began his career as an art teacher by the invitation of James Warwick who offered him a one year part-time post at the Belfast College of Art in 1954.

That year Colin Middleton showed forty-two works at the Belfast Municipal Gallery under the auspices of the Council For the Encouragement of Music and the Arts.

Colin Middleton lived on Plantation Avenue, Lisburn for nine years next door to fellow artist and pedagogue Dennis Osborne, who presented a portrait of Colin Middleton at the annual exhibition of the Royal Ulster Academy in 1965.

Colin Middleton showed in many group shows throughout the fifties including the Royal Academy in 1955, in addition to more solo exhibitions with the Victor Waddington Gallery in 1955, and his first showing at the Richie Hendricks Gallery in 1958.

Colin Middleton showed in the Arts Council of Northern Ireland's gallery in 1965 with additional works at the Bell Gallery and his Bruges Series was shown at Alice Berger Hammerschlag's New Gallery upon his return from a Belgian trip in 1966.

Colin Middleton was amongst the prizewinners at the Arts Council of Northern Ireland's 4th Open Painting Exhibition in 1968.

The Royal Mail used Colin Middleton's painting of Slieve na Brock in the Mourne Mountains to commemorate the Ulster '71 exhibition in a series of postage stamps that featured the work of Tom Carr and TP Flanagan.

In 1972 Colin Middleton toured extensively with his wife visiting Australia for two months and showing his works from the trip at the McClelland International Galleries on Belfast's Lisburn Road the following year.

Colin Middleton lived for the last twelve years of life in Bangor, County Down.

Colin Middleton died of leukaemia in Belfast City Hospital in December 1983.

Colin Middleton was survived by his wife Kate, their daughter and a step-daughter.

In 1935 Colin Middleton was elected associate of the Ulster Academy, inducted alongside Helen Brett, Kathleen Bridle, Patrick Marrinan, Maurice Wilks, Romeo Toogood and William St John Glenn, and in 1948 he became an elected Academician at the same.

In 1968, he was appointed MBE in the Queen's birthday honours list, and in 1969 Colin Middleton was elected an associate at the Royal Hibernian Academy with full membership conferred just a year later.

Colin Middleton was awarded an honorary Master of Arts degree from Queen's University, Belfast in 1972.