in 1972, both at the latter. In 1952 Middleton exhibited alongside Daniel O'Neill, Nevill Johnson, Gerard Dillon and Thurloe Connolly at the Tooth Galleries in London. 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 Middleton showed forty-two works at the Belfast Municipal Gallery under the auspices of the Council For the Encouragement of Music and the Arts. In the following year he delivered full-time classes at the Coleraine Technical School, before becoming head of art at Friends' School, Lisburn in 1961 where he was to remain until 1970. Middleton lived on Plantation Avenue, Lisburn for nine years next door to fellow artist and pedogogue Dennis Osborne, who presented a portrait of Middleton at the annual exhibition of the Royal Ulster Academy in 1965. A poet and musician, Middleton also produced murals, mosaics and posters. One such mural was commissioned for a house in Ballymena designed by the architect Noel Campbell in an international modernist style in 1951, and other works included a mosaic for a school in Lisburn, and a mural in a health clinic. 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. Of the Waddington exhibition the Dublin Magazine wrote: 'Apart from the brilliance of his paint, he has one rare quality in his inexhaustible capacity for wonder'. 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. The Arts Council of Northern Ireland suffered an extensive fire at their storage facility in south Belfast in autumn 1967 which decimated their collection of contemporary art and theatre costumes. Losses included several of Middleton's paintings, in addition to the works of many other leading Ulster artists such as William Conor and TP Flanagan. Middleton was amongst the prizewinners at the Arts Council of Northern Ireland's 4th Open Painting Exhibition in 1968. In the same year John Hewitt curated a joint exhibition of his paintings with TP Flanagan, at the Herbert Art Gallery in Coventry. The