Ghislaine McLaughlin was born in 1949 in Longueuil, Quebec. She studied at the Institut des arts appliqués de Montréal (1967). During the 1970s, she devoted herself to personal research and experimentation in drawing, ceramics, and batik. In 1983, she moved to Moncton and studied at the Université de Moncton, where she received a bachelor's degree in visual arts (1990). That same year, she participated in an intaglio engraving workshop with artist Pavel Skalnik.

Very active in the development and promotion of the visual arts in the Moncton area, McLaughlin is a member of the Imago printmaking studio, the Galerie Sans Nom in Moncton, and the Struts Gallery in Sackville. She has also served as secretary of the board of directors of the Imago studio and as chair of the board of directors and director of the Galerie Sans Nom. In 1989, she collaborated on a research project on the visual arts in Acadia since the 1950s. She was also the promotion and public relations officer for the National Conference and Annual General Meeting of ANPAC/RACA (1992), the association of artists and alternative centers, which focused on contemporary arts in Canada at the end of the 20th century.

In 1990, she opened a gallery specializing in contemporary arts in New Brunswick, McLaughlin Objets d'art, to give artists another place to showcase their work.

Since 1988, she participated in more than 25 exhibitions, nearly half of which were solo shows. Notable solo exhibitions include Tétralogie 4X4 at Galerie Sans Nom (1991), which explored the warrior aspect of our culture; Warship/Worship at Galerie ConneXion in Fredericton; Brides and Types (1996) at the Université de Moncton Art Gallery (1996); Bagatelle (1997) at the Struts Gallery in Sackville, N.B., and Vent d’anges at Galerie 12 in Moncton (1997). Among the group exhibitions in which she has participated are Images of Our Time and Place: Art of Atlantic Canada, organized by the Beaverbrook Art Gallery (Fredericton, 1995), and Quinze x quinze, organized by the Galerie Sans Nom to mark its 15th anniversary (1996).

Her works are included in the collections of the Fédération des Caisses populaires acadiennes (Le Moniteur acadien, the leading French-language newspaper in the Maritimes, 1867 (1996)), the Canada Art Bank, collectionArtNB, the Louise and Reuben Cohen Art Gallery at the Université de Moncton, and the Beaverbrook Art Gallery in Fredericton. 

Ghislaine McLaughlin has produced paintings that allow her to reflect on the place of women in today's world.