| ARTIST BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH: | Holly Janet Middleton was a western Canadian artist and educator who worked in a wide range of media over a long artistic career. She painted in watercolour and oil, worked as a muralist and with stained glass, and created and explored all forms of printmaking.
Middleton’s approach to painting was very much based in the tradition of English watercolors technique, with its use of light, transparent washes. She was also influenced by the tradition of the topographic artists of the mid 19th century, where working en plein air served the purpose of documentation.
Middleton studied art alongside prominent artists including H.G. Glyde, Walter J. Phillips, and A.Y. Jackson. In 1956-1957, Middleton’s serigraphs were exhibited in the First Western Canada Print Exhibition at Hart House in Toronto. Her works were regularly included in the large juried exhibitions of the Canadian Print Exhibitions, and she was granted full membership there in 1961. The following year, she was granted a British Arts Council bursary and studied graphics at the Slade School of Art in London.
Middleton taught at the University of Alberta, and throughout the summers at the Banff School of Fine Arts from 1948-1971. She later lectured at the University of Guelph in Ontario. Middleton was an early member of the Canadian Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers, and a member of the Alberta Society of Artists. Her work is found in many private and public collections throughout Canada.
|