The 26-year-old New Plymouth artist said she enjoyed the positive public feedback to her 11 oil-on-canvas works while she painted at the easel over two days in the gallery in the Mountaineer building last week.
Middlebrook said she had been working hard on the pieces which form ''One Verse, No Rhyme'' since winter.
''They're all quite personal works and I've tried to get some reaction from the figures I've chosen and how they relate to each other,'' she said.
''Children don't have all the baggage adults do, so it's easier to project yourself into these scenes.''
Middlebrook graduated from Otago Polytechnic School of Art in 2010 with a bachelor of fine arts degree and she was one of the highlights at the Dunedin School of Art students final
SITE Art Exhibition 2010.
In the year she graduated, she won two awards for her painting. She was second in the Invercargill Licensing Trust Art Awards, then won the Otago Polytechnic Dunedin School of Art's main art award.
She won other art awards including the Molly Morpeth Canaday art prize last year.
Gallery owner Pauline Bianchi said Middlebrook was ''an extremely talented and motivated artist'' who was gaining popularity.
''Few artists can paint portraits, animals, still-life, landscapes and architecture with such realism, yet still be comfortable with leaving areas of the canvas in a semi abstract raw state,'' Ms Bianchi said.
• ''One Verse, No Rhyme'' is in Artbay Gallery until November 14.
