I know very little about this artist, not even whether “M Collier” is male or female. What little biographical information there is simply mentions that the artist was born in San Francisco, earned a degree in Art History from California State University, has “lived in and traveled to many places”, and now resides in Southern California.

M Collier is represented online by a painting blog called Paintings from the Point, as well as by inclusion in the DailyPainters.com site and membership in the Daily Painters Guild. I mentioned Collier briefly in my post last spring about Painting a Day Blogs (Round 6), The Daily Painters Guild. I don’t see any sign of a dedicated portfolio site or mention of gallery representation.

Collier’s paintings appear refined and accomplished, with an emphasis on chiaroscuro and the effects of light as it plays across the the gleaming faces of curved china dishes, around reflective silver surfaces, and through transparent vessels holding water, and usually, flowers.

There is a fascination with light, and the color of flowers and vegetables, but in particular I think, with the way these smooth curved objects sashay the light beams around their forms in graceful arcs and ellipses. If you look at the shapes of the areas of color, soft, muted blue-grays and delicate slivers of highlights, you’ll find those curves and arcs repeated again and again. This is particularly evident in the repeated theme of stacks of teacups, in which your eye follows a swinging line back and forth as it travels down the canvas.

Most of these works are painted in oil on board at a small scale, often 6×6″ (15x15cm), and take on the (I think) difficult challenge of handling square compositions. They are predominantly of small, intimate subjects, treated with a clear realist approach. The compositions usually employ a dark, very neutral background, against which brightest highlights in the foreground objects sometimes go to pure white. Within that range, color is carefully controlled and at times seems almost like an accent; with the red of cherries or the greens and reds of vegetables appearing almost like an extra element on top of a monochromatic final.

When viewing the works in Collier’s blog, there is no “Previous Posts” navigation, so use the dated links in the right hand column. You can also find a thumbnail-gallery display on the DailyPainters.com site that makes it easier to get an overview.