At times Middleton's background as a damask designer created problems in his paintings, but in the later work... he skillfully draws on it to enhance rather than overbalance a composition. Pattern dominates El Nene but the figures do not lose their solidity and weight nor does the space ever become too flat. The abstract coherence of the mother and child gives them a greater universality because they do not become too particular. http://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/colin-middleton-rha-mbe-....