He was the editor of the Manila Chronicle Sunday Magazine, he was a self-taught painter. As one of the thirteen moderns founded in 1938, he invented a new mode of abstraction, which evoked lush Philippine flora, fauna, sunshine, stars, and rain. He painted a series of abstracts called “Mutants,” evocative of biological forms that seemed to oscillate and multiply. Art critic Leonidas V. Benesa wrote: “Ocampo’s paintings… showed an almost scientific preoccupation with color and Lahi in 1976, both from the City of Manila, and the Gawad CCP para sa Sining.
