the same. In 1968, he was appointed MBE in the Queen's birthday honours list, and in 1969 Middleton was elected an associate at the Royal Hibernian Academy with full membership conferred just a year later. He was awarded an honorary Master of Arts degree from Queen's University, Belfast in 1972. The Arts Council of Northern Ireland granted Middleton a substantial subsistence award in 1970 which was to cover two years enabling him to retire from teaching to concentrate on painting full-time. In the same year the Arts Council of Northern Ireland also commissioned him to paint a portrait of their director, Kenneth Jamison. Critical Biography Hewitt, John (1976), Colin Middleton, Belfast: Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon and the Arts Council of Northern Ireland See also List of Northern Irish artists References External links Examples of Colin Middleton's work in UK public collections via ArtUK Trace of a Thorn -a documentary film portrait of the artist Colin Middleton Examples of Colin Middleton's work held by the Royal Hibernian Academy 1910 births 1983 deaths Painters from Northern Ireland British male painters British surrealist artists Irish surrealist artists Surrealist artists People from County Antrim Artists from Belfast 20th-century British painters Members of the Order of the British Empire Members of the Royal Ulster Academy Members of the Royal Hibernian Academy Educators from Northern Ireland Alumni of Belfast School of Art 20th-century British male artists