About the Artist

James Middleton is a Canadian portrait painter, landscape artist and workshop instructor living in Nova Scotia, Canada. James’ landscapes and portrait

“life sketches” have been called impressionistic realism. He enjoys the description and the balance it brings to his commissioned portraits. It was the great portrait artist John Singer Sargent who said that a portrait artist should go outside and paint landscapes, to avoid becoming a mannerist. 

Prior to his painting career, he founded Middleton Design Associates Inc. in Toronto, Ontario, where his team developed major corporate identity, branding, and marketing programs for some of Canada’s leading corporations and the Government of Ontario.

A major turning point in his painting career came in 2006 during a week-long workshop with master painter Albert Handell in Putney, Vermont. There, Middleton met and painted alongside the legendary artist Richard Schmid, his wife Nancy Guzik, and the Putney Painters. Inspired by the experience, he returned the following year to further study under Handell and Schmid. His other major artistic influences include Sargent, Sorolla, Zorn, Fechin, Cecilia Beaux, and many others.

James Middleton is a member of The Portrait Society of Canada, The Portrait Society of America, Oil Painters of America, Society of Canadian Artists, Ontario Plein Air Society, founding member of the Sunrise Painters Portrait Group, and the South Shore Painters Portrait Group. His work includes portraits, landscapes/seascapes, figures, and still lifes.

James’ work has been recognized by many organizations and publications, including the Portrait Society of Canada’s 2025, 2024, 2023, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014 Portrait Competition “The Miracle of the Portrait” – Competition Top Finalist/Certificate of Merit; Portrait Society of Canada’s “International Portrait Arts Festival Competition” – Competition Top Finalist/Certificate of Merit; 14th and 16th Annual PleinAir Salon Art Competition – Best Artist in Category with painting “Speaker of the House with His Painting”; 16th Annual PleinAir Salon Art Competition – Top Finalist with “Portrait of Thane”; Art Gallery of Peel’s Annual Juried Show – Best Painting (portrait); ArtWorks Oakville’s Annual Juried Show – 2nd Place (portrait); Society of Canadian Artists’ National Juried Show – 2nd Place Award of Merit (portrait); Richeson 75 Figure/Portrait Juried Show; Ontario Society of Artists National Juried Exhibition (portrait) – 80 finalists nationwide; PleinAir Magazine; Bold Brush Painting Competitions (portraits and landscapes); Canadian Agricultural Hall of Fame; Nova Scotia Business Hall of Fame; Studio Magazine; Applied Arts Magazine; Ontario Forum Awards; Financial Post Magazine; Visual Arts Mississauga; Canadian Brushstroke Magazine – Contemporary Portraits; Chronicle Herald; Halifax Citizen; South Shore Breaker; Bedford-Sackville Observer; Macdonald Notebook.