Claude Kitto was born in Fowey and raised in the West Country. He studied at Bath and Gloucester Schools of Art and went on to serve in the Western Desert during the Second World War. Kitto exhibited at the Royal West of England Academy, the ROI and the Royal Academy. His work is also represented in the permanent collection of Plymouth Art Gallery. During the 1980s he had a series of solo shows in London.

Based in St Neot, around that time he also worked in St Ives, and was president of the East Cornwall Society of Artists. Subsequently he settled in Wembury, Devon. His fine watercolours, mainly of boatyards, were under-rated during his lifetime.