Groleau was born in Lewiston, Maine in 1960. A self-taught artist usually drawn to dark, psychological themes, Groleau extends his focus in 'Salt Granite Spruce' to encompass the beauty of his native state. Groleau is the recipient of numerous awards, grants and fellowships, including a MacDowell Colony Fellowship in 2001.

On track for a college education, he unexpectedly quit high school and headed for Boston where he experienced his first taste of autonomy. In 1984 he hitchhiked to San Francisco. There, he signed up for a course on printmaking at City College and saw for the first time examples of the engraving technique mezzotint. Every aspect of the technique appealed to him: slow, methodical, and meditative. The recipient of numerous awards, grants and fellowships, James Groleau’s works are included in the collections of the Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco; Portland Museum of Art, Maine; Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio; Oakland Museum of California; National Museum of Fine Art, Antwerp, Belgium, Ekaterinburg Museum of Fine Arts, Russia and many other national and international collections. A solo exhibit of his mezzotints was mounted at the Ekaterinburg Museum of Fine Arts in 2013. He divides his time between the San Francisco Bay Area and coastal Maine.