Tom Ouellette, born in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1954. Ouellette was a National Merit Scholar, and received his undergraduate education at Harvard. Subsequently, he studied at the Art Institute of Boston, from which he graduated with honors; and then from 1989 –1994 worked with Michael Aviano, serving as his assistant. During this time he had scholarship grants from La Napoule Foundation, La Napoule, France, and from the John F. and Anna Lee Stacey Scholarship Fund. 

Ouellette’s approach to painting, whether with the human figure or with still lifes, is always to apply meticulous classical technique to the depiction of highly contemporary subject matter. Many of his paintings exploit dramatic contrasts between light and shadow, reflecting his interest in Rembrandt, Caravaggio, and Sargent.