1) Seascape 1; 2) Untitled (Reflections)

Middleditch was born and brought up in Chelmsford and attracted critical attention and respect from early in his career. His interests in pattern, light and motion place him among the avant-garde of his day. These two works are of high quality and representative of his 1970s period. They demonstrate how the artist bridged the territory between abstraction and romantic landscape by expressing natural forms and phenomena as striking, almost two-dimensional tonal patterns. Bodies of water, fresh or sea, are a recurrent theme through Middleditch's work. Seascape I can be read (though not particularly identified) as a view of the nearby Blackwater estuary. This work was acquired with the support of the Art Fund with the assistance of the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation.