Doug Hatch, was born in rural Wisconsin in 1954. He lived there until the age of eleven, when his family moved to the Hudson River Region of New York. They settled near "Olana" - the Mount Marino Retreat of 19th Century American Realist Frederick Edwin Church. It was there that Hatch began to develop a lifelong fascination with Realist painting.

As a youth, his primary interest in life was observing and drawing automobiles, trucks and other man-made objects. In high school he discovered Edward Hopper and Charles Sheeler, and his instructors encouraged him to pursue a career in art.

His artistic training was interrupted by three years of service (1972-1975) in the U.S. Air Force as a weapons mechanic and armaments expert. This experience was a dramatic reminder of the transitory nature of the structures around us, and strengthened his desire to capture in painting the everyday scenes that usually go unnoticed or are taken for granted.

In 1975 he entered the University of Wisconsin - Fond du Lac on the G.I. Bill. He left two years later, and for the next four years he supported himself working as a landscaper, chauffeur, and decorator of ceramics in a stoneware pottery shop. He continued to draw at nights and on weekends, and discovered the works of Richard Estes and other photorealists.

From 1981 through 1983 he studied at the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design. there he learned the formal principles of color theory and was exposed to the works of Caravaggio.

He has been a full-time painter since 1985 working 60-70 hours per week.