Charles Jones Way was born on July 25, 1835, in Dartmouth, Devon, England. His father, William Hopkins Way, was an artist. Showing talent in painting at a young age, Way studied at Somerset House in London and continued his training at the Central School of Art, first at Marlborough House and then at the South Kensington School of Art under Sir Richard Redgrave. He graduated in 1858 as an artist and instructor.

Way arrived in Montreal in 1858 and established a studio where he taught drawing and painting while also working for William Notman as a colorist. He was one of the founders of the Art Association of Montreal in 1860, the same year his paintings were prominently exhibited at the Industrial Exhibition at Montreal's Crystal Palace. The Prince of Wales selected one of Way's paintings, "The Prince's Squadron off Gaspé Basin," for himself. Way was praised in the Montreal Daily Witness on September 1, 1860, as an artist of "varied talents." In 1863, he exhibited four paintings at the National Academy of Design in New York and reportedly met Robert S. Duncanson that year, later traveling with Duncanson and Allan Edson to London, England.

In 1864, William Notman produced "North American Scenery, Being selections from C.J. Way's Studies, 1863-64," a pictorial album with 12 mounted photographs based on Way's sepia watercolor studies. The following year, "Notman's Photographic Selections, Second Series" reproduced Way's English and Welsh scenic landscapes from a trip to England in 1864. In 1865, Way exhibited paintings with the Royal British Society of Artists and the Royal Academy of Arts in London, as well as in Montreal.

Way served as President of the Society of Canadian Artists in 1870 and exhibited in their second exhibition that year. Also in 1870, he was elected a Councillor of the Art Association of Montreal, which purchased his painting "Monte Rotondo" as their first acquisition. The same year, Way was elected to the Board of the Arts and Manufacturers as their only artist member. In 1876, he showed six paintings in oil and watercolor in the Canadian section of the Centennial International Exposition in Philadelphia and was awarded a silver medal.

In the spring of 1873, due to a smallpox outbreak in Montreal, Way and his family traveled to London, England. In 1874, they moved to Lausanne, Switzerland, where he became a member of the Société des Peintres et Sculpteurs Suisses. In 1880, Way was elected an Academician of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts as an honorary non-resident charter member. In 1884, he donated a watercolor to the Royal Canadian Academy's collection, which formed part of the beginning of the National Gallery of Canada's collection. Way continued to send paintings depicting European and British landscapes for exhibition with the Royal Canadian Academy and the Art Association of Montreal until a year before his death.

In 1898, Way was commissioned by the Canadian Pacific Railroad to paint a series of Canadian landscapes. He returned to Canada for approximately two years with his daughter Aimée, also an artist, and became a member of the Pen and Pencil Club of Montreal. He traveled from the Atlantic coast westward along the railway line to British Columbia, and in 1899 exhibited paintings of the Rocky Mountains with the Royal Canadian Academy. After completing his commission, he returned to Lausanne, Switzerland, where he died on February 13, 1919. His work is held in public collections including the National Gallery of Canada, Art Gallery of Ontario, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, and McCord Museum.