Born and raised in Maryland, Palden Hamilton attended the Gilman School, where he studied under Betsey Heuisler. After receiving his B.F.A. from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2002, he continued his education at the Art Students League of New York, where he studied under Ron Sherr, Harvey Dinnerstein, and Mary Beth Mckenzie. There he was awarded a Merit Award in Realism and the Phylis T. Mason Grant. Hamilton has done a range of commissioned portrait work since returning to his hometown of Baltimore. He was notably commissioned to paint Maestro Yuri Temirkanov, the musical director of the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra in Russia. In 2008, 2017, and 2018, he was awarded Certificates of Excellence from the Portrait Society of America. Hamilton has painted landscape extensively on location in his native Maryland, and on travels to his mother’s homeland, the Himalayan kingdom of Sikkim. As a landscape artist, he has participated in and received honors from Easton, Wayne, Solomons, and Cape Ann plein air events.