Ronald Neal Marlett was born on March 6, 1951, in Portland, Oregon. He was the third of four children born to Howard and Vera Marlett, before the family moved to California in 1958. Howard and Vera encouraged Ron's interest in the arts by providing music lessons and art supplies. On Christmas morning at age twelve, Ron received a Jon Gnagy oil painting set. He took to easel painting immediately, and oil painting became a lifelong pursuit.

Ron joined the Coast Guard in 1970 and served as a seaman aboard the USCGC Winnebago, stationed in Honolulu, Hawaii. A year later, he transferred to the 14^th Coast Guard District's public relations office. During the remaining three years of his enlistment, he worked on a monthly publication called Pacific Shield. One of his responsibilities was creating a cartoon series entitled Ensign Bafflestir, a lampoon of military bureaucracy. In his off-duty hours, he continued painting as a hobby. In 1974 he was discharged from the Coast Guard and moved to Tahiti to work as an easel artist. After six months of searching for a personal painting style, he returned to Westlake Village, California.

During the 1970s, the Marlett family attended many art exhibitions. Two that had the greatest influence on Ron were shows of Norman Rockwell and Vincent van Gogh. Rockwell's mastery of realism strengthened Ron's desire to develop technical skill, while van Gogh's work inspired him to pursue the life of an easel painter. After studying the lives of many artists, Ron became convinced that art required full-time commitment. That belief stayed with him throughout his career and can be seen in the notes on many of his stretcher bars, which include the hours spent creating each painting.

Ron became a full-time art student at Pierce College. He continued painting Tahitian subject matter and exhibited works at sidewalk shows. One notable exhibition took place at the Los Angeles Pacific Design Center in 1976, where a gallery of 25 paintings was complemented by evening performances of Tahitian musicians and dancers.

In 1978 he returned to Tahiti and lived in the district of Mahina for six months. Galerie Winkler helped him sell his paintings and encouraged him to extend his visa, but his desire to complete his education brought him back to California in 1979.

Over the next five years, Ron focused on education. In 1984 he graduated from California State University, Northridge with a Bachelor of Arts degree in applied arts. He built a portfolio of acrylic illustrations and pursued freelance illustration. Commercial art politics did not appeal to him, and he returned to his goal of being an easel artist. In the fall of 1986, he was accepted as a contracted artist for Martin Lawrence Galleries, which allowed him freedom in subject matter and paid him in advance for original paintings.

During the four years he painted for Martin Lawrence Galleries, Ron's work can be described as experiments in geometric composition. To supply four paintings a month, he painted at a fast pace. The realistic style he began with in 1986 evolved toward an impressionist approach by 1989. After crossing the bridge between realism and impressionism, he began experimenting with color. His final works for Martin Lawrence used bright, intense color and later became known as pop impressionism.

In 1990, AG Publishing purchased four original paintings and used them to produce thousands of posters. Two additional originals were accepted on consignment, bringing the total number of pop impressionism paintings to nine. Near the end of 1990, Ron shifted focus to a family business proposed by his younger brother Rich. He moved away from pop impressionism and began refining his realistic technique.

Rich Marlett conceived The Archaic Images Company to publish Ron's military art. One of the most successful works from this period was Assault on Battery Wagner, depicting the heroic charge of the 54^th Massachusetts regiment against a Confederate fort during the American Civil War. Limited edition prints were produced and sold under the same title as the original.

Of the paintings created for Archaic Images, a baroque still life titled Still Life with a Sword-Billed Hummingbird became a pivotal point in his career. The work inspired Ron to devote much of his subject matter to the still life genre.

After the death of his mother in 2004, Ron moved in with his niece to continue painting full-time. In the years that followed, he continued commissioned realistic portraits while developing his impressionist style - many of those pieces featuring scenes of Laguna Beach.

In 2014, Ron began creating humorous images of himself interacting with famous paintings - works meant as a personal commentary on how awkward he felt in dating and other social situations. Between 1963 and 2023, Ron Marlett completed 317 paintings. He continues to refine his realism, humor, and impressionism techniques.