[2] Starting at a young age, Ochtman worked as a draftsman at a wood-working firm in Albany.

In 1879, Ochtman moved from Albany to New York City where he roomed with fellow painter, Charles Warren Eaton.

[2] He traveled to Europe in 1886, where he was influenced by the Dutch Hague School painters Jacob Maris and Anton Mauve.

[4][5] Other members of the colony included John Henry Twachtman, Childe Hassam, Julian Alden Weir, Elmer Livingston MacRae, and Theodore Robinson.

In 1912, Ochtman and his friend, the sculptor Edward Clark Potter, formed the Greenwich Society of Artists and the Bruce Museum.