Doig was born in Edinburgh, but moved with his family to Canada as a child. He went to England in 1979 to study art at the Wimbledon School of Art, St Martin's School of Art and later the Chelsea School of Art.
Many of Doig's pictures are landscapes, with a number harking back to the snowy scenes of his childhood in Canada. His works are frequently based on found photographs, but are not painted in a photorealist style, Doig instead using the photographs simply as a reference.
Doig was nominated for the Turner Prize in 1994.