Born to poor parents in Port-au-Prince, Valcin began as a tile setter.  Later he began to paint and, in 1959, was encouraged to pursue this vocation by Dewitt Peters at the Centre d'Art.  He gave up tile setting as soon as he could afford to through the sale of his paintings, and was soon considered one of the most significant of Haiti's second generation painters.

 

Undoubtedly influenced by his first profession, his tightly geometrical depictions of Vodun and agrarian scenes are dominated by a rhythmic sense of pattern analogous to the sound of the drums so essential in the rituals represented by Valcin.

 

His work is included in the permanent collection of the Musee d'Art Haitien du College Saint Pierre in Port-au-Prince, the Milwaukee Museum of Art, and the Waterloo Museum of Art in Iowa.

 

Stebich, Ute.  A Haitian Celebration:  Art and Culture.  Milwaukee:  Milwaukee Art Museum, 1992