Guy Bailey was born in 1945 and lives and works in Quebec. He initially became known for naive paintings illustrating rural Quebec. He studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Montreal in the early 1970s but worked as a self-taught naive painter after leaving the institution. His early work featured villages, sometimes depicted from an aerial perspective.
In the 1980s, Bailey's work underwent a stylistic shift. He moved away from his naive painting style and began creating work characterized by saturated colors, abrupt gestures, and references to German Expressionism. His later paintings incorporate masks as central elements, drawing inspiration from African art. He adds plaster above his colors in his technique, creating textured surfaces.
Bailey works in mixed media on canvas and cardboard. His paintings since the 1980s feature imagery that combines human and animal forms.