Born in France in 1954, François Cayol spends his childhood in Paris, France and his adolescence in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

In 1974 he moves to Aix-en-Provence in the south of France where he works at the Atelier of André Bourdil. In 1976 he becomes a pupil of Louis Calevaert Brun, an eminent master engraver in Paris, over 80 at the time, who thoroughlly teaches him classic engraving techniques.

In 1978 François Cayol  travels through West Afrika and makes his first drawings of the Niger River and Mali landscapes. He will return for many more drawings until 2005.

He stays in residence at the Chateau de Lourmarin in the south of France in 1986 and resides and works in the United States at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in Providence.

Selected by the Académie de France, he becomes a resident at the Casa de Velázquez in Madrid between 1992 and 1994, www.casadevelazquez.org.

He stays in residence at the Abbaye de la Prée in the Center of France between 2000-2005. During those years, François Cayol, regularly returns to work in Spain and Morocco, and travels for drawing in Tunisia, Turkey,Yemen, the Azores, Lapland, Iceland and Canada.

Since 2010 he lives alternatively in his studio’s in Paris,  the Auvergne and the Herault. New travels take him yearly to Iran, Mongolia, Oman, India, Colombia, Peru and Georgia.

His work includes several thousands of drawings and dry points.