Born in Toronto, Ontario, he became interested in art about the age of 12. He attended the Ontario College of Art, where he studied under J.E.H. MacDonald, Franklin Carmichael and others. 1929-33. In order to finance advanced studies in New York he worked as a miner around 1936, at the Omega (deInite) Mine at Larder Lake. In 1937 he studied at the Art Students’ League, New York, under Howard Trafton. 1937-9 and while there he worked as a commercial artist making illustrations for advertising until 1942. During the Second World War he went overseas with the royal Canadian Artillery attached to the survey group. Early in his painting he was influenced by the work of J.W. Beatty, J.E.H. MacDonald, and Frank Carmichael. Over the years he has made trips to British Columbia and many other parts of Canada travelling by trailer with his wife and son, three months of the sumer. One year however, he returned to the deInite mines where he had worked, and painted a series of canvases from the miner’s point of view. Reviewing his work in 1961, Globe and Mail critic Colin Sabiston wrote, “Technically, Mr. Collier has reached a new peak of achievement, especially in his paintings. The drawings are in clean-cut lines…The paintings, on the other hand are redolent of rich color…” Collier’s media include oils, water colours, pyroxilin and acrylic polymer emulsion. A muralist as well, he has decorated the foyer of the Toronto agency of the Bank of Canada, and two murals in the Ryerson Institute of Technology, Toronto. His portaits include personalities in business and educational fields. He considers his finest portrait that of his wife Ruth. He has exhibited at the Roberts Gallery in the early spring of each year of 1961, 1963, and 1965. He is represented at The National Gallery of Canada, the Art Gallery of Ontario, and the Hamilton Art Gallery. He is an instructor of Drawing and Techniques at the Ontario College of Art. He is a member of the Ontario Society of Artists (1951) (Pres. 1958-61), Associate Royal Canadian Academy (1956) now R.C.A. (A Dictionary of Canadian Artists, volume I: A-F, compiled by Colin S. MacDonald, Canadian Paperbacks, 4th edition, page 136)