Northern Irish painter Colin Middleton studied at Belfast College of Art and from 1947 worked as an art teacher. Middleton’s prolific output in a variety of modernist styles is characterised by a strongly surrealist vision and lifelong interest in documenting the lives of ordinary people. A major retrospective of Middleton’s work took place at the Ulster Museum and Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane in 1976. The exhibition ‘Colin Middleton: Paintings and Drawings’ was held at IMMA in 2001.