The 4025 Hoist, McIntyre

Private Collection, Ontario

Alan Collier, Photocopy of studio journal (1934-1990), page 170, The E.P. Taylor Research Library & Archives, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto

Following his graduation from the Ontario College of Art in 1933, Alan Collier travelled across Canada working as a miner in order to earn enough money to study at the Art Students’ League in New York City. He returned to mining periodically throughout his studies to fund his education. In his mature career, Collier revisited the mines once again, however this time the intent was for sketching excursions. He began with a trip to Delnite Mine in Timmins, Ontario in 1951. During the following years the artist ventured into several other mines throughout northern Ontario, notably McIntyre, Preston East Dome, New Calumet, Faraday, Coppercorp, Kidd Copper, Copperfield, and Lamaque Mines. In Alan Collier's archives at the Art Gallery of Ontario, the artist identifies “The 4025 Hoist, McIntyre” in his studio journal with the identification number 170 on the reverse of the support. Collier describes his process of creating this luminous painting based off of a 20x16 sketch he had drawn in October of 1952. He sought to emphasize a rusty quality to the setting which had not been present in the original sketch; the artist explains his technique in his journal as having “mixed a slightly purple dark grey and thinned it with the thinner and built it up in an almost dry brush technique as I haven't found a way of washing in duco yet.” Collier concludes the entry with a comment on his application of sand to the painting, writing that “two grades of sand were used for texture, mostly in the floor but a little in the rock walls.”