Doug Martenson is a graduate of PAFA and studied at the Vermont Studio Center. He has lived in the Philadelphia area since 1978. Martenson exhibits regularly, having shown work in galleries in New York as well as the Sherry French Gallery and the Gross McCleaf Gallery, Philadelphia; the Vose Galleries, Boston; and the Courthouse Gallery in Ellsworth, Maine.

He is the recipient of several grants and awards, including a Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Fellowship (1996), Individual Creative Opportunity stipends from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts (2000, 2002), a Pew Fellowship in the Arts grant for study at the Vermont Studio Center (1993), a Cresson European Traveling Scholarship and the Philadelphia Mayor's Award from PAFA (1981, 1982).

Since 2010 Martenson has served as Chair of the PAFA Faculty Committee. He is also a Lecturer in Figure Drawing at the University of Pennsylvania. In 2013 Martenson curated The Artist’s Response to Nature: Tonalism, Historical and Contemporary at the PAFA museum. Martenson teaches Figure Composition, Landscape, Figure Painting and Figure Drawing in the Certificate/BFA program. He also teaches in the Continuing Education program.