Edgar Hatten was born in 1929 in Evanston, Wyoming.  He lived most of his life in Los Angeles, California. He was a teacher at Swinbourne College in Australia, and in California at East Los Angeles College and Citrus College. His paintings integrate mood, concept, visual elements and drama.  Themes that interested him were isolated people, trees, still lifes, landscapes and abstracts.  

Edgar Hatten lived most of his life in California as an artist and a teacher. He preached that the general aim of an artist should be to express mood through proper selection of appropriate visual elements, and that was exactly what he did. His paintings integrate mood, concept, visual elements and drama.  His work has been described as integrated and harmonious, while at the same time attaining remarkable balance.  Richard Reilly, an art critic from The San Diego Union wrote about Hatten’s work in 1979, “one realized that there are no accidental effects on his canvasses: lighting, composition, color, brushstrokes, everything is highly controlled.  The starkness of his shapes are without superficiality or tricks, and his pictures attest to an involvement with, not a detachment from life.”