Colin Middleton RHA MBE (1910-1983)

The highly respected Irish landscape artist, figure painter and Surrealist* Colin Middleton was born in Belfast in 1910. While he was learning painting and drawing at Belfast College of Art, he was heavily influenced by the work of the Dutch Expressionist Vincent van Gogh. A deep thinker as well as a modern artist, Middleton's early work contained non-naturalistic use of colour as well as symbolist* even surrealist imagery, leading him to regard himself as the only Surrealist working in Ireland in the 1930s. His paintings first appeared at the Royal Hibernian Academy* (RHA) in 1938, although perhaps because of his modern approach to art he only gained associate membership in 1969 ...