Armand Tatossian was born in Egypt in 1948 to Armenian parents and immigrated with his family to Montreal in 1960. His grandfather was an artist and a curator at the Alexandria National Museum of Egypt, and his great-uncle Yeghiche Tatossian was also an artist. His art education was lengthy and international; he studied under Serbian sculptor José Majzner, received instruction from Adam Sheriff Scott from 1966 to 1969 and attended art history classes at McGill University from 1967 to 1969. He trained in mural painting in Italy in 1970, studied with Jean Carzou in Paris in 1971 and painted with Jean Paul Riopelle in 1975.

His works are known for being expressive, textured, and brightly coloured. He preferred to work directly from nature, painting many landscapes, as well as still lifes and portraits. In 1973 he became the youngest member accepted into the Royal Canadian Academy, and he taught at Loyola College and Concordia University in Montreal. He exhibited in North America, Europe and Asia, and his work can be found in the collections of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the National Gallery of Canada and the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, among others. Tatossian died in Montreal in 2012.