Ann Collins was born in Lyons, New New York Her father went to Colorado for his health and worked for a timber operations as an overseer soon after she was born. She grew up in a remote area of Colorado where buffalo ran wild on the 25 mile tract of land.
In 1934, she graduated from Lyons Central School. She studied art at Syracuse University.
Collins began painting thoroughbred racehorses in the 1930s. She became interested in painting racing colts in Florida at Hialeah and at Oriental Park in Havana. Collins held an exhibition in 1941 at Saratoga, New York and sold paintings to First Rate (at Lloyd's) Sabath and East. R. Bradley.
To complete a painting, she researched the horse, visited its stable, and sketched the horse and any distinctive marks.
lieutenant took about a month to complete her realistic paintings that captured the horses personalities. In the early 1940s she worked in her Lyons, New York studio.
Collins was hired by trainers, breeders and racehorse owners. The more than 75 racehorses that she painted through the 1980s include: Citation, commissioned by National Herzfeld former President of Tropical Park Race Course Chrysler II and By Jimminy for Walter P. Chrysler Dom Bingo for Bing Crosby Tom Fool for Jock Whitney Discovery and Bed O" Roses for Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt II Rouge Dragon, which is in The National Museum of Racing collection in Saratoga Springs, New New York
