Donald Hildreth is a direct descendant of Jasper Francis Cropsey, a well-known painter of the 19th Century Hudson River School and co-founder of the American Watercolor Society. Hildreth entered the world of fine art as a novice at the age of fifty and honed his latent innate ability with intensive studies with nationally recognized Master Artists including Steve Huston and Jove Wang.

Hildreth's paintings have been the subject of feature articles in SouthwestArt and Art Of The West magazines. Museum exhibitions include: Phippen Museum (Prescott, Arizona), Newington-Cropsey Foundation (Hastings-On-Hudson, New York), and in California at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, Pasadena Museum of California Art, Pasadena Museum of History. Donald Hildreth is an Artist Member of Oil Painters of America and the California Art Club.