Denis started drawing at the age of four under the tutelage of his grandfather, a master fresco painter who was a close protégé of Claude Monet. His art education eventually included painting and art restoration, since his grandfather had restored many Rembrandts.

After graduating college with a Bachelors in Fine Arts, he worked as a commercial artist at Exxon, producing art for the Chairman of the Board and 149 affiliate companies. He was later awarded a teaching fellowship to attend Pratt, attaining an MFA in painting. While maintaining his painting studio, he restored 17th century Flemish works of art for major museums. His large figurative photorealist paintings were exhibited at the Brooklyn Museum, in major universities, and at several large commercial galleries in New York. These works were distinguished by "cropping" the picture frame as an aesthetic perversion of photography. It was a novel approach, now common among today's photorealist works.

Years later he pioneered a new genre of painting, hyperrealism, breaking once again from formalistic conventions of traditional painting. He presently paints fulltime in his art studio, producing his work in thematic series which are routinely made available for exhibiton.

Paintings by Denis Peterson can be found in private and public collections throughout the United States.

His inspiring work has been exhibited at galleries throughout New York and shown at the Brooklyn Museum as well as in colleges and universities.

His groundbreaking hyperrealist work is sought after by art collectors worldwide.