Mission Statement
The Pastel Society of the Gold Coast is a non-profit organization for the specific purpose of providing public exhibitions for its members, to educate the community through collaboration with environmental and other non-profit organizations, and to promote the arts in general.
Bert Collins
Bert (Alberta) Collins
Note: Click on this seascape by Bert Collins to see it on the Gallery page. Click on the "Home" button at the top of this page
to see it in the slide show.
Alberta (Bert) Collins was born in Los Angeles in 1928. Her career as a painter began at the age of fifteen at a ceramics factory near her home in Glendale, In 1960, Bert began practicing with both acrylic and oil paint, and had her first solo art show just eight months later. Commissions soon poured in from galleries in Newport Beach to Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. In the following years, Collins maintained a near constant production of paintings in order to satisfy demand. Deciding that a less commercial creative process would be more enjoyable, Bert and her husband, Ralph, relocated to Ojai in 1976.
Bert was one of three artists who founded the Ojai Studio Artist’s Tour in 1983. After almost thirty years, the tour has revitalized local arts education and the economy. In 1984, Bert stumbled upon two particularly inspiring pastel landscapes in a gallery. She and her art were suddenly transformed. Bert immediately began painting in pastels and studied with such renowned pastel artists as Richard McKinley and Glenna Hartmann.
The majority of Bert’s works are realistic landscapes, seascapes and still lifes rendered in soft pastels on sanded paper. She continues to use acrylics and oils, but to a lesser degree than pastels. Collins is ambidextrous when she paints, capable of wielding a brush in either hand so that she may move more freely over her canvas. Although a well-known plein air artist, These days, Bert prefers to paint from memory, or to use her imagination in developing subjects.
Today, Bert continues to teach pastel classes and workshops at her West Hills Ojai Gallery where she is oft quoted as asking, “Who has more fun than I do?” With a successful career spanning more than fifty years, a remarkably joyful spirit, and an extraordinary oeuvre, it is only natural that she should ponder such a question
Among her many affiliations, Bert belongs to The
Ojai Studio Artists, S.C.A.P.E. (So.Calif. Artists Painting the Environment) Ventura County Pastel Artists and The Pastel Society of the Gold Coast.
Bert was one of three artists who founded the Ojai Studio Artist’s Tour in 1983. After almost thirty years, the tour has revitalized local arts education and the economy. In 1984, Bert stumbled upon two particularly inspiring pastel landscapes in a gallery. She and her art were suddenly transformed. Bert immediately began painting in pastels and studied with such renowned pastel artists as Richard McKinley and Glenna Hartmann.
The majority of Bert’s works are realistic landscapes, seascapes and still lifes rendered in soft pastels on sanded paper. She continues to use acrylics and oils, but to a lesser degree than pastels. Collins is ambidextrous when she paints, capable of wielding a brush in either hand so that she may move more freely over her canvas. Although a well-known plein air artist, These days, Bert prefers to paint from memory, or to use her imagination in developing subjects.
Today, Bert continues to teach pastel classes and workshops at her West Hills Ojai Gallery where she is oft quoted as asking, “Who has more fun than I do?” With a successful career spanning more than fifty years, a remarkably joyful spirit, and an extraordinary oeuvre, it is only natural that she should ponder such a question
Among her many affiliations, Bert belongs to The
Ojai Studio Artists, S.C.A.P.E. (So.Calif. Artists Painting the Environment) Ventura County Pastel Artists and The Pastel Society of the Gold Coast.
Note: this seascape by Bert Collins can be seen
on the Gallery and in the slide show on the Home page.
To return to the Gallery, click on the seascape.
To return to the slide show,
To return to the Gallery, click on the seascape.
To return to the slide show,
click on the "Home" button at the top of this page.