Roland Roy began his artistic career while working as a real-life “Hawaii Five-0” police officer and sketch artist on the streets of Honolulu. Sketching both criminals and victims every day gave Roy an ever-changing source of ‘models’ through which he was able to hone his skills. Eventually, Roy discovered that his true calling was art, not law enforcement, and he decided to study at the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles. In complete contrast to his darker material that he created while on the force, Roy’s favorite subjects to paint were the flowers, colors, and people of Hawaii. Almost immediately, Roy took the art world in Honolulu by storm.

Primarily inspired by Matisse and Gauguin, Roy is always experimenting with different media and styles; his paintings stylistically range from figurative to cubist, and he has worked in oil, acrylic, watercolor, and pencil. Roy’s life is now so focused on art, that he claimed he even paints in his sleep, “…just without brushes…”