J. Carlton Lucas is a native of Wilson County, NC but grew up in Kinston, NC. He attended Mount Olive College and completed Bachelor's degrees in both art and religion from Barton College. In 2005, he graduated magna cum laude from Hood Theological Seminary in Salisbury, NC with a Master of Divinity degree.

Carlton has been drawing and painting for most of his life. He has experience with clay, acrylic, watercolor, gouache, pen and ink, pastels, charcoal, and pencil, but his favorite medium is oil paint. He prefers a realistic style, and he subject matter varies widely from nature scenes to still life to pet portraits.

Carlton was commissioned by the Palmetto Council, Boy Scouts of America, to create a work for presentation to major donors. "From Indian Fort" depicts and eagle in flight in the North Carolina mountains.

He was also commissioned by Douglas Presbyterian Church in Lancaster, SC to do a church portrait to be sold as a limited edition print for a fund-raising project. Currently Hood Theological Seminary is taking orders for a limited edition print of his painting of a worship service in the old seminary chapel on West Thomas Street.

Carlton also has two other works in print, "Spring Visit," a hummingbird among camellia blooms, and "Three Men, Two Mules, One Row," showing tobacco planting techniques in mid-twentieth century eastern North Carolina.