Colin Middleton (29 January 1910 – 23 December 1983) was a Northern Irish landscape artist, figure painter, and surrealist. Middleton's prolific output in an eclectic variety of modernist styles is characterised by an intense inner vision, augmented by his lifelong interest in documenting the lives of ordinary people. He has been described as ‘Ireland's greatest surrealist.’ Biography Middleton was born in 1910 in Victoria Gardens in north Belfast, the only child of damask designer Charles Middleton. He 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 Middleton found the college too traditional in outlook, as his first influence, his Father, had been a follower of European Modernism, particularly the Impressionists. Career Middleton showed his first works with the Ulster Academy of Arts in 1931, where he was to exhibit frequently until the late nineteen-forties. He 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. The Ulster Unit was a short-lived grouping of Ulster artists who took their inspiration from Paul Nash's Unit One formed earlier in the same year. Just two years thereafter In the same year Middleton married Maye McLain, also an artist and a domestic science teacher, who was to die only four years later. Middleton was also 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. After the death of his first wife he destroyed all of his early paintings and entered a period of seclusion at his Mother's home outside Belfast. Middleton became a follower of Van Gogh and also of James Ensor after viewing exhibitions in London and Belgium respectively. On his return to Ulster he began to experiment with styles derived from European Modernism, the antithesis to traditional academism. Throughout the thirties he was also a keen follower of Paul Nash, Tristam Hillier and Edward Wadsworth. After exposure to the works of Salvador Dali, Middleton declared himself "the only surrealist painter working in Ireland". His work first appeared at the Royal Hibernian Academy in 1938 where he was to show intermittently until the final year of his life. 36 Arthur Street Belfast was the venue