Born in September 1918 in London, Roland Collins showed a strong artistic aptitude from an early age. With the help of the London county council, he attended St. Martins School of Art in the Charing Cross Road and was taught by the likes of Leon Underwood and Vivian Pitchforth. Collins was first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1937, however for years he worked in relative obscurity until the mid-nineties when he was at last given a taste of the recognition he had long deserved. A born and bred Londoner, Collins was a modest man with a ferocious talent for appreciating and recording the obscurities and particularities of England's cities, seaside, rivers and canals. His works display a joy in the veneration of the everyday, as he delighted in the aesthetic power a street sign, picket fence, anchor or fish cart could afford. Working predominately in gouache on a format of 15 x 21 inches, his work records landscapes and cityscapes that have since disappeared.