John Hatch was a UNH art professor from 1949 to 1985. During his long and distinguished career here, he created many works for the UNH campus including the design for the Memorial Window in the MUB, the mural in Kingsbury Hall, and portraits of various campus personages. He was a beloved and devoted professor and a well-liked and respected faculty colleague. Remembered as a caring Durham citizen, Hatch was an active environmentalist for the region who worked to establish the Great Bay Trust and to protect Durham Point, where an oil refinery had been proposed to be built.

Hatch was a talented and prominent artist. He earned both his B.F.A. and M.F.A. at Yale University. He had a profound reverence for nature and is best known as a painter of landscapes, especially of the New Hampshire mountains and seacoast. John has been described as a boldly experimental artist who inventively combined media such as sumi ink, collage, sand, watercolor, oils, acrylic, tempera, rice paper, and fine gauze. He was honored as a “New Hampshire Living Treasure” by Gov. Jeanne Shaheen in the biennial Governor’s Award in the Arts. John Hatch’s contributions to both the state and the University of New Hampshire make his works a superlative addition to the Museum of Art’s collection.

In White Mountain Brook, John Hatch successfully captured the essence of the New Hampshire landscape while making this familiar land fresh through his painting. Here, he reduced a White Mountain scene to its basic shapes and created an almost geometric expression of the rocks contrasting against the soft organic texture of the trees. Contrast is also expressed through the alternation of bright whites with deep blacks. The strong diagonals and verticals create movement within, while the muted colors and earth tones provide a sense of peace. The energetic use of ink and the emphasis on a compressed, vertical space reveal Hatch’s deep interest in Chinese landscape painting.