Ozols Obituary

Article by John Pope about Ozols' passing

Auseklis Ozols passed away peacefully and in prayer on September 24, 2025. He was surrounded by family and died at his home in Uptown New Orleans, two days after his 84th birthday.

Ozols was preceded in death by his wife, Gwendolyn Laan Ozols (1950-1980) and is survived by three daughters, Saskia Ozols of New Orleans, LA, Aija Ozols Gibson (husband Mark) of Los Angeles, CA, and Indra Charlotte Ozols, also of New Orleans, LA. He was loving grandfather to Gwendolyn Liga Ozols, Catherine Cornelie Gibson, Anneken Klara Gibson, Evan Auseklis Eubanks, and Pearson Cornelius Eubanks. He leaves behind one sister, Aija Ozols Tobiss of Elizabeth, Colorado.

Ozols is also survived by a large extended family of loving relatives, students, colleagues and friends. He was a charismatic leader in the New Orleans Art Community and a practicing artist, lecturer, and art educator who worked and taught in New Orleans for over 50 years.

Auseklis Ozols founded the New Orleans Academy of Fine Arts (NOAFA) in 1978. He based the model and name of NOAFA on his alma mater, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and emphasized "the art of seeing" or “observation” as it intersects with visual arts. He mentored thousands of students and instilled in them a love of painting, a high standard of excellence, and supreme reverence for nature and spirituality. His knowledge and practice were unmatched, and he strived to learn and share something new every day. The Academy continued under his direction for 42 years until his retirement in 2020.

Ozols was a portraitist, a master of landscape, figure and still life painting, as well an expert watercolorist, designer, and muralist. A scholar of Sacred Geometry and its relationship to the arts, Ozols regularly lectured on the Golden Mean. He has been featured in numerous print publications & periodicals including American Artist Magazine. Among books that include his work are: Expressions of Place, and A Unique Slant of Light, in addition to a biography: Auseklis Ozols, The Romantic Realism of an Artist and Teacher, written by John Kemp.

Ozols is part of the permanent collections of the New Orleans Museum of Art, The New Jersey State Museum, and the Latvian Museum of Art in Latvia. His work is represented in public and private collections internationally.

Auseklis Ozols has painted murals that grace the walls of the Windsor Court Hotel in New Orleans, the Governor's Mansion in Baton Rouge, the Saint Rose de Lima Church in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, as well as a number of private residences throughout the Gulf South.

Ozols’ hand-drawn design work includes numerous logos, monograms, and invitations for private organizations, individuals, and societies, including the New Orleans Opera, The Garden Study Club of New Orleans, as well as the Hermes and Rex Organizations. Additionally, Ozols had the honor of creating three Rex Proclamations for the years 2003, 2006, and 2015.

A selection of the many awards he has received include: The William Emlen Cresson Traveling Scholarship, 1964; the Edward Marshal Boehm Purchase Prize, New Jersey State Museum, 1965; the HallgartenPrize at the National Academy of Design, New York 1969; the Delgado Society Award of the New Orleans Museum of Art, the Strength in Age Award, and the Community Arts Award from the Arts Council of New Orleans, and the Annual Artist Recognition Award, 2002 in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the arts and arts education.

Auseklis Ozols was born in Latvia in 1941 and immigrated to the U.S. in 1950 after having fled the Soviet invasion in 1944. His father was a government agronomist and university professor in Latvia. His mother was a pianist and homemaker.

He attended the University of Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and later earned a masters degree at Temple University in Philadelphia.

Ozols studied with and knew many of the chief artistic personages of the 20th century. Among them, Marcel Duchamp, Jacques Lipshitz, Leonard Baskin, Grace Hartigan, Leon Golub, Edward Hopper, Ben Shahn, and others. He was a close studio assistant to Walter Stuemphig while at the Pennsylvania Academy and inherited teaching methods and aesthetic philosophy of Thomas Eakins.

Ozols was a devoted father and he embraced his girls with love, art, nature, and history; teaching the importance of ancestry, and maintaining traditions from both the Netherlands and Latvia in daily life. He took pride in sharing everything he knew.

Auseklis Ozols will always be remembered for his contributions to the Fine Arts, his passion for knowledge, his attachment and contributions to his adopted city, his love of family, joy in friendships, masterful wit, and unending quest for the beauty in every moment.

Many thanks to the Sister Servants of Mary, who helped care for Ozols in his final days.

Relatives and friends are invited to attend a Memorial Service at St.Charles Avenue Presbyterian Church, 1545 State Street, New Orleans, Louisiana 70118, on Thursday October 9, 2025. Visitation with the family begins at 9:30am, funeral service at 11am. Private Interment to follow.

In lieu of flowers, the family appreciates your donation to City Park Conservancy for the dedication of a memorial bench overlooking his favorite place to paint. Please visit https://neworleanscitypark.org/support-your-park/donate/ and list Auseklis Ozols in the dedication.

Additional donations may be made in honor of Auseklis Ozols to The Sister Servants of Mary, 5001 Perlita Street, New Orleans, LA 70122 (504) 282-5549,

and to the St. Charles Avenue Presbyterian Church, 1545 State Street, New Orleans, Louisiana 70118 (504) 897-0101, which he attended for the duration of his time in New Orleans.