Colin Moss was a British artist. Born in Ipswich in 1914, Moss was raised in Plymouth. The artist began his education at the Plymouth Art School between 1930 and 1934 before enrolling at the Royal College of Art in London. Upon his graduation in 1939, Moss worked on extensive murals for the British Pavilion at the 1939 New York World’s Fair. Following the outbreak of the Second World War the artist served as a camouflage officer for the Ministry of Home Security. His artistic talents were put to use devising camouflage designs to disguise important and sensitive buildings throughout England. During this time, Moss often recorded views of his completed work in a series of watercolours. In 1941 Moss served in the Life Guards in the Middle East, and later continued to serve in the Army Education Corps in Palestine after the War had ended. He frequently drew representations of military life whilst stationed abroad, which would later become the basis of his most enduring paintings. Moss returned to civilian life in 1947 when he accepted a position on the staff of the Ipswich School of Art.
In 1951 he participated in his first solo exhibition at the Kensington gallery of art dealer Michael Chase and in the years that followed exhibited regularly in both one-man and group shows in London and in his native East Anglia. The artist co-founded the New Ipswich Art Group in 1958 and, upon his retirement from the Ipswich School of Art in 1979, served as the Chairman of the Ipswich Art Club between the years 1980 to 1983. Moss’ long career as an educator and as a popular proponent of the arts in Suffolk and East Anglia encouraged his work as an art critic for the East Anglian Daily Times from 1981 to 1995. The artist died in 2005. His work is represented in a number of collections throughout Britain.