Tomas Ogle is an oil painter who was born and raised in the Inland Empire of sunny Southern California. He holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in painting from Laguna College of Art + Design and a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in drawing & painting from California State University - Long Beach.

Currently, he lives in Orange County, CA with his wife, Carmen, and their cat.

Artist Statement

My work, at its core, is figurative. Through the figure I am able to represent not only depictions of myself but of the viewer and in a sense the human experience. My figures are heavily stylized and I often represent their gender and race/ethnicity ambiguously or non existent. It is through my figures where a sense of belonging to something that is greater emerges.

I am heavily inspired by other forms of art like ancient artifacts, storytelling, and spirituality. Aspects of humanity that I fear have become lost or diminished with the passage of time. Yet they drive my creative spirit and give me a deeper, more personal sense of connection and belonging within the human race.

My oil paintings serve as a celebration of this physical world. They function as a poetic love letter to the experience of existing, of having a body that senses and feels, eyes that look up and witness, hands that reach out and touch, feet that ground and elevate, and to the fleeting yet cyclical nature of life itself. Through my work, I seek to honor, preserve, and attempt to better understand this fragile yet resilient, transient experience of life.