Jean-Claude Roy was born in 1948 near Bordeaux in France. He showed an early talent for painting, but at the age of 12 was sent to Technical College in Saintes to study to become a merchant mariner. He first came to Newfoundland in 1966 while working on a French cable-repair ship. He loved the wild Newfoundland landscape and started to make sketches there. In 1971, he came ashore and moved
to St. John’s in Newfoundland to paint full-time. Since then he has had many exhibitions of his work
in Canada, France, and the United States. He now divides his time between France and St. John’s.