Llewellyn was born in Edmonton, Alberta, where he got interested in art at a very early age. In 1934 he was given the opportunity to visit London, England. When he presented some of his watercolours of Alberta landscapes to the Royal Academy of London they swiftly decided to accept and display them ‘on the line’ — at eye level — an honour that few artists, let alone unknown young Canadian painter, were given.

He remained in London and made numerous visits to Paris, France. In Paris, he was invited to show his paintings at the Salon d’Automne where Matisse, Picasso, Paul Cezanne, Marc Chagall and other leading painters hung their work. In the 1950’s, Max Stern of the Dominion Gallery of Montreal had noted Llewelyn’s artistic scope and commissioned him to paint close to 200 Parisian landscapes.

From a self–educated artistic beginning in the 1920’s to being commissioned to paint portraits of Queen Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh in 1955, Llewellyn Petley-Jones remains a rare artistic gem.