John Collins, MBA, is a lifelong artist who grew up and studied in Western Massachusetts. His love of art has spanned many forms including drawing, painting, and sculpting. For many years he has pursued his art only part-time while raising his family but in early 2022 he transitioned from the business world, phasing out his own architectural products marketing company to focus on taking his art to the next level.
Fresh into his second act as an artist (June 2022) John entered one of his car portraits (Carrera GTS oil painting) in a national Porsche Club of America art show event and won both first place for a studio art painting and the Porsche Family Award for Excellence which is an award judged by a Porsche AG executive as the ‘best in show” representation of the company's product. Grant Larson, Director of Special Projects for Porsche AG and lead designer for the 25th Anniversary Boxster, was the Porsche Representative. On the heels of his artist residency at Eagle Hill School John was honor with a 1st place award for his sculpture at the 5th annual Northeast Fine Art Exhibition.
John loves to paint portraits of people, pets and prized possessions. However, sculpting the three-dimensional human form, although challenging, is by far his favorite subject matter. Sculpting for 30 years, he has experimented with many materials including stone, wood, clay, and even snow, ice and beach sand — winning competitions for his unique larger than life human form sand sculptures on Narragansett Beach. His other “more permanent” sculptures have been exhibited locally and throughout the Northeast including the national juried shows of the Norman Rockwell Museum’s Sculpture Exhibition, Art in the Orchard, and the Northeast Fine Arts Show. When he is not painting or sculpting John also trains golden retrievers and has a talent for teaching and sharing his passion for and knowledge of art with people of all ages.
My earliest art inspired childhood memory is visiting the Statue of Liberty and experiencing how much Bartholdi could say or make a person feel with his famous sculpture. Painting and drawing are part of my body-of-work, but for me nothing compares to the challenge of creating three-dimensional sculpture in a realistic human form.
My artistic goals are to tell a story, make a statement, or capture one’s essence in a portrait. Some of my sculptures are temporary larger than life creations made of snow, ice, or beach sand that disappear with the next sunny day or turning tide, before briefly making an impression on passersby. More permanent smaller pieces are done in clay or stone and those have more time to inspire a reaction or trigger an emotion in the viewer.