Max Middleton has enjoyed a long and highly acclaimed career as a professional artist, exhibiting for nearly 60 years. He continues to paint full-time at the age of 82.

Max has a great interest in the Australian landscape. As a plein air painter, he faithfully renders what he sees. He has an extraordinary ability to capture light on canvas.

Max chooses to paint very diverse subjects: pumpkins lying in a vegetable garden, a figure reclining on sun-drenched sand, horses ploughing a paddock, treeferns standing in damp rainforests. Vitality infuses them all. Born in Melbourne in1922, Max knew from the age of 12 that he wanted to be an artist. By the age of 16 he was learning to draw at the National Gallery School. His good-natured father took him on Sunday drives to find suitable sites at which to stop and paint. He also studied privately with Septimus Power. Power was both a mentor and a friend who strongly influenced Max's career. Power expressed his confidence in Max's technical competence by inviting Max to assist with teaching.

Max painted for two years throughout Europe in the early fifties. He studied in London and Florence, and viewed the work held by major galleries including the Tate, Uffizi and the Prado. Max continued his tour painting in Wales, Ireland, Paris and Spain and in the flourishing art community of Cornwall. It was in regional Spain that he chose to paint the people of the area, and since then, the human figure has been a recurring subject in his paintings. Since his first exhibition at age 23, Max has held 60 exhibitions throughout Australia. Max's success belies his quiet commitment to his work, and his gentle reverence for life.

Collections
Queensland Art Gallery; Bendigo Regional Art Gallery; Benalla Regional Art Gallery.

Artist Statement
"Despite the fact that I have painted many subjects I have endeavoured to have clear goals and they are: to be inspired by nature in all its variety, to be excited by what I see, to paint only that which touches me deeply and to attain the highest excellence in draftsman ship and technique in order to express what I feel about my subject"

Professional Development
1938 Studied Drawing at the National Gallery School under William Rowell
1940 Studied under Harold Septimus Power Taught painting
1946 First Solo Exhibition
1950-53 Painted in Europe; Studied at Heatherley's School in London and Scuola del Bella Art in Florence. Painted in Wales, Cornwall, Ireland, Paris & Spain. Returned to Australia and resumed teaching and painting
1959 Lived and painted in Bali; Married Elsa Jocobs.
1965 Moved to Kalorama in the Dandenongs, began to paint surrounding forests
1966 Began painting teams of working Clydesdales
1968 Painted in the Trobriand Islands
1974 Painted working teams of bullocks
1975 Painted and travelled in Europe
1978 Began painting cattle musters in Northern NSW
1986 Painted cattle in the Victorian high country
1988 Began painting nudes

Exhibitions
1946 Tallangatta Shire Hall, Tallangatta Kozminsky Galleries, Melbourne
2006 "Max & Anne Middleton"; Anne Middleton Gallery
2004 "Max Middleton; Past & Present" Anne Middleton Gallery
2003 Five Ways Galleries, Melbourne
1997 Leonard Joel Gallery, Melbourne
1996 Rafferty's Galleries, Perth
1993 Caulfield Arts Complex, Melbourne First Settlement Gallery, Sorrento
1984 Barry Stern Galleries, Sydney
1981-92 Five Ways Galleries, Melbourne
1979/80 Kalorama Galleries, Melbourne
1978 Kalorama Galleries, Melbourne David Jones Gallery, Adelaide
1976 Newtown Gallery, Adelaide
1972/74 Rigby Gallery, Adelaide
1968/70 Moyle's Gallery, Adelaide
1966 Moyle's Gallery, Adelaide Adam Galleries, Melbourne Parry Galleries, Melbourne
1963/64 Studio Exhibition, Melbourne
1963 Malvern Fine Art Gallery,
Melbourne Hamilton City Art Gallery, Hamilton Joliffe Gallery, Hobart
1961/62 Athenaeum Gallery, Melbourne
1956/58/60 Tasmanian Tourist Bureau Gallery, Melbourne
1954/55/59 Athenaeum Gallery, Melbourne
1950/53 Royal Society of Arts Gallery, Adelaide
1948/49 Athenaeum Gallery, Melbourne
1947 Athenaeum Gallery, Melbourne
Royal Society of Arts Gallery, Adelaide