At least 70 new works by Jean Claude Roy, a signature artist of the Grand Bohemian Gallery, will be featured through November. The gallery is the exclusive representative of his paintings in the United States. Jean Claude was born in 1948 in Rochefort-sur-Mer, France, and says he knew from the age of seven that he wanted to be an artist. Encouraged by his grandfather, a farmer of modest means who sometimes bought paintings at auctions, Jean Claude grew up with the interior of his family’s house painted with murals.

He studied at the Lycee Technique de Saintes in France, from 1960 to 1966. He emigrated to Canada in 1971, at which time he began painting seriously. Within two years, Jean Claude was selling his works in local galleries, and had his first exhibition in 1974.

Jean Claude, who describes his style as “expressionist/ colorist,” works most frequently with oils and a palette knife, and in recent years his paintings have become larger and more densely colored. Since the late 1980s a characteristic of his landscapes has been the presence of the sun (this, he says, followed a discovery that by putting the sun—initially a black sun—in the sky, light was added to the painting). This has now come to form an important part of the composition of each his works.

The Grand Bohemian Gallery is located within the Grand Bohemian Hotel, 11 Boston Way in Biltmore Village. For more information, visit grandbohemiangallery.com or call 828.398.5555.