Dominador Hilario Castaneda, painter and writer, was a close friend and contemporary of Fernando Amorsolo. His paintings diverged from the characteristic style of the Amorsolo School and a different direction, especially in terms of color. Castaneda is well known for landscapes rendered in cool tones of white and blue.

Castaneda won first prize for a treasury note design in a national competition sponsored by the Central Bank of the Philippines in 1949, and also wrote a pioneering history of Philippine art which was published in 1964

Castaneda was given the Patnubay Sining Award by the City of Manila in 1971