Through an extraordinarily refined and perfected painting technique, Anne Middleton explores our natural world in sublime detail. She examines the environment and our connectedness to it. Unapologetically beautiful, Anne’s paintings immerse the viewer in her deeply personal and poetic aesthetic, which has been developed over thirty five years of consistent dedication to her chosen medium of oil painting.

Anne’s lineage as a painter draws richly from the classical, romantic and baroque artistic traditions that flourished in Europe during the 17th and 18th Centuries, and is heavily influenced by her 1995 studies in Italy of traditional buon-fresco. Her father, Max Middleton, whose outstanding skill painting landscapes en plein air, has profoundly affected Anne’s painting practice. Anne had watched him create his iconic light-filled landscapes from her early childhood.

Anne has significantly contributed to the contemporary artistic community both within Australia and on the international stage in Hong Kong, Italy, and the UK. In 2004, she was the first Australian to be awarded a Fellowship from the prestigious Bogliasco Foundation in Italy. Throughout her celebrated career, Anne has held eleven solo exhibitions and participated in more than thirty art fairs and group shows internationally.

In recent years, Anne has explored the genres of still life, landscape and portraiture. She has been a finalist in the Archibald, Darling and Lester Prizes, and in 2018 won the Archibald Prize People’s Choice Award for her portrait of the actor Guy Pearce. Anne is a dedicated full-time artist, and is currently working on two major series of oil paintings. Gates of Paradise pushes the boundaries of photorealism and botanical art to engage with notions of the sublime. This series of still life was begun in 2009 and over 70 paintings have been completed to date covering an area of over 100 square metres. Silent Atmospheres explores the intangible atmospherics and wild weather of the magnificent volcanic country of her beloved home in Tower Hill on the coast of south-western Victoria.

Solo Exhibitions
2023  Compendium Gallery, Melbourne – Silent Atmospheres
2017  The Gallery, St Kilda Town Hall, Melbourne – Gates of Paradise
2015  Rebecca Hossack Art Gallery, London – Gates of Paradise
2013  Rebecca Hossack Art Gallery, London – Gates of Paradise
2008  Indabella, Pokfulam, Hong Kong – Flores
2005  Albert Park Gallery, Melbourne – Artist in Study
2001  Fenix Restaurant, Melbourne – Nourish
2001  Hotel Sofitel Melbourne – Fronds
2000  Hotel Sofitel Melbourne Food & Wine Festival Exhibition – Nourish
1999  Hotel Sofitel Melbourne – Nourish
1998  Span Galleries Melbourne – Creases

Group Exhibitions
2022  Hamilton Gallery, Victoria – Here and Now
2021  Art Gallery of Western Australia – The Lester Prize
2020  National Portrait Gallery, Canberra – Darling Portrait Prize
2018  Art Gallery of New South Wales – Archibald, Wynne & Sulman Prizes
2016  The Gallery, St Kilda Town Hall, Melbourne –The Botanic Garden
2006  Albert Park Gallery – Oceania australis
2006  Albert Park Gallery – Mother, Father, Daughter.
2006  The Hon. John Thwaites Offices, Treasury Place, East Melbourne, Southside Arts
2005  Toyota Community Spirit Gallery – Neomillenium
2005  Sofitel Melbourne, – Art & Soul
2004  Toyota Community Spirit Gallery – Bridge
2003  Albert Park Gallery – Lush
2002  Charles Nodrum Gallery – The Painted Fold
1999  Old Treasury, Melbourne – The Deep South
1998  Aboriginal Art Galleries of Australia, Melbourne – Fuse
1995  Palazzo Massi, Arezzo, Italy
1989  Massoni Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
1989  Women’s Gallery, Melbourne, Australia

Art Fairs
2015  Art Stage Singapore
2015  Sydney Contemporary Art Fair
2011 – 2014  Art Fairs in Singapore, Toronto, London, Hamptons, New York & Melbourne

Residences
2004  Bogliasco Foundation Fellowship, Genoa, Italy

Awards
2018  Archibald Prize Peoples Choice Award

Collections
National Portrait Gallery, Canberra, Australia
Tuscan Region Municipal Collection, Italy
Coburg Peninsula Sanctuary board, Gurig National Park, Australia
Il Laboratorio per Affresco di Vainella, Prato, Italy
Parliament of Victoria, Australia