Alan Caswell Collier
was born in Toronto in 1911 and died in 1990. He graduated from
the Ontario College of Art in 1933 and later
studied at the Art Students’ League in
New York City. In 1955, after spending three years in the Canadian
Army, Collier returned to Toronto to teach painting and advertising
design at the Ontario College of Art. His memberships included
the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts and the Ontario
Society of Artists (Pres., 1958-61).
During his studies, Collier spent one year working at the Omega
mine at Larder Lake, Ontario. He returned to
the mines some time later in order to paint a series illustrating
the miner’s point of view. This acrylic on canvas mural
is thematically related to that series. Here, the artist has achieved
an illusionistic quality through the juxtaposition of the plumb
line against the rich colouration of rock. Collier explained,
“The plumb bob is the symbol of all the engineering
tools that tie together surface and underground workings.”
|
