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 is often focused on time—its passage, its weight, and its presence is a constant in my everyday life manifesting in many different ways. I find that the past and the future occupy my thoughts more than the present moment. Curious about the lives that once populated the Earth and all of their individual experiences and stories. All that is left of them are relics. I contemplate and fear the future because it is unknown yet inevitable. Eventually, I too will become like all those who once lived here.

Through painting, I attempt to connect with the things inaccessible and better understand them—the cosmos, the dead, and the unknown. My paintings become portals that allow me to break the rules of this universe slowing, stopping, and even reversing time. I am inspired by cave paintings, mythological narratives of higher beings, and spirituality. Human aspects that have become lost with time, yet they drive my style 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.