Fernand Toupin was born in Montreal in 1930. He studied drawing at Mont Saint-Louis College, Montreal with Brother Gédéon. In 1949, he attended night classes at the École des Beaux-Arts de Montreal. From 1940 to 1953, he studied painting with Jean-Paul Jérôme and attended Stanley's Cosgrove's studio.

In 1955, he was a founding member of the Plasticiens group and co-signer of the Manifeste des Plasticiens. In 1957 - 1958, he was director of exhibitions for the Executive Committee of the Association des Artistes Non-Figuratifs de Montréal. He held nearly 25 individual exhibitions since 1959, among these are the ones at the Musée d'Art Contemporain de Montréal (1967 and 1974), the Galerie Arnaud, Paris (1970, 1972 and 1976), the Centre Culturel Canadien de Paris (Retrospect - 1972), the Bernard Desroches Gallery (1974, 1976 and 1988). He also took part in some thirty group exhibitions, among those are the Festival Des Deux mondes, Spoleto, Italy (1962), the exhibition which travelled to nine Canadian museums (1975 and 1983 - 1984) and the International Art Exhibition in New York (1980). He also created tapestries at the Ateliers Pierre Paquin in Paris (1970 - 1972), and sets for the Grands Ballets Canadiens (1974 and 1977).