"At 17, Collins was apprenticed to J. W. Forster of Toronto, one of the foremost portrait painters in Canada.

His progress was so rapid that before completing the first year of his apprenticeship, he painted a portrait of Honorable Albion Rawlings, a member of the Ontario Parliament.

For this piece of work he was said to have received the highest price ever paid in this country for a crayon portrait.

This contact marked the beginning of his specialty of miniature portraits painted with watercolor on ivory.

[2] In 1911, the Idaho legislature voted for an appropriation for painting the portraits of all territorial and state governors, including the then incumbent, James H. Hawley.

[2] Two years after the death of Mary Straight Collins in 1925, he married Josephine J. Pratt of London Ontario.

"In the period 1928–34 he went into semi-retirement with his wife near Los Gatos, California, they did considerable traveling, but he kept up his interest in art by painting a number of landscapes.

[2] In 1930, he is shown in the census with Josephine in Redwood Township, Santa Clara County, California.

[3] Redwood Township is in the area of the modern cities of Los Gatos, Monte Sereno and Saratoga California.

"Through the years 1934 to 1937, inclusive, he worked as Artist-Preparator in the Western Museum Laboratories, National Park Service, Berkeley, California.

[14] His painting of the legend of Mato the Bear hangs over the fireplace in the visitors center at Devils Tower National Monument.

[16] He did portraits of National Park Service Directors Stephen Mather, Horace M. Albright, and Arno B.

[17] His portraits of the Kent family are in the Muir Woods National Monument in Marin County, California.

[1] His Oakland Tribune second page obituary summarized his career by saying that he was "widely heralded for his portrait artistry" and that "he did much work for the National Park Service".