Original paintings

This is the most complex, large-format watercolor painting I've ever done! I began work on this painting in early 2021 and finally completed it in 2023. When I was in Europe in 2016 I enjoyed every minute I spent in Paris, and this day was wonderfully wet and beautiful. I never would have guessed that a few years later this particular spot would be damaged by riots. Then I learned that gigantic renovations were going to alter this famous street to make it more user-friendly for the millions of people who visit every year. I ended up capturing a moment in time that would never return in quite the same form."           -Steven Kozar

"Here's a nice little farmscape of an area of Wisconsin just north of where I live. Enjoy!"      -Steven Kozar

"In the summer of 2016, I had an incredible adventure visiting Europe for three weeks. I was able to visit Brussels, Paris, London, a day trip through a bit of Germany, and two weeks in Strasbourg, France.

I was overjoyed to find myself taking photo references in the rain both in Brussels and Paris, but the beautiful city of Strasbourg was mostly sunny and dry while I was there. Except for this morning! I spent two hours running around taking some of the very best photos of my life this morning.

This painting took me about four months of tedious work, but I'm so happy with how it turned out! I believe it was worth every hour of painstaking work."      -Steven Kozar

"On my very first day in Paris it rained at dusk and I could barely contain my excitement! This is the very first painting from that time. This was a much more difficult and tedious painting than even I imagined, but after almost four months of work I am thrilled with the end result!" -Steven Kozar

Here's a video where Steve shows this painting in great detail: https://youtu.be/TpLukzEeKrk

"I was so glad I had a chance to visit Cedarburg, Wisconsin, on a summer afternoon, but I was disappointed that it was cloudy, as I was hoping to take photographs for a painting. As my wife and I went to dinner the clouds blew away, revealing a beautiful summer sky.

I ran around town like a mad man, trying to capture as much as I could before it got too dark. After shooting many great ideas and thinking I was done, I turned a corner to find this scene! This oil painting seemed to take forever, but in actuality, it was about four months of painstaking work. I think it was worth it!"   -Steven Kozar

"This is an atmospheric rendition of a southcentral Wisconsin landscape on an ordinary, somewhat dreary, day. I enjoyed the challenge of capturing the feeling of this scene without going into extreme "'photorealistic' detail as I often do in many of my other paintings.  

Although a lot of people still insist that this 'looks so real!' it's actually the suggestion of great detail and the feeling of atmosphere and space that I was focusing on."   -Steven Kozar

Here's a video about this painting from Steve's YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/9Kyp_gnhZk0

"This painting portrays the area in Wisconsin near Baraboo, with it's beautiful rolling hills. I really stretched out the dimensions for this painting to give the feeling of standing there and taking in the view on this autumn morning. I hope you can feel like you're there!"  -Steven Kozar

"After attending a Door County art fair I was out driving around looking for a new painting idea. Actually, I had a piece of cherry pie from the Sister Bay Cafe and then I went out driving around looking for a new painting idea. As soon as I saw these two chairs alone on the beach I turned around and quickly took a few photos before it was totally dark. About three months later the idea had become a watercolor painting-taking about twice as long as I thought it would. I won't tell you exactly which beach is was, since I was (very briefly) trespassing. Relax, and enjoy this Door County Sunset." -Steven Kozar
Here's a video from Steve's YouTube channel about this painting: https://youtu.be/rAP2edqv6P8

In this painting I tried to teach myself some new techniques. I've never used acrylic paint with this much detail and complexity before. I wanted to portray the ironic beauty of a crumbling industrial plant with its seemingly hopeful looking signage in context with a beautiful summer sunset. In artsy terms, this would be called a juxtaposition of disparate parts, combined in such a way as to create cohesiveness where it normally wouldn't be found.

This location in Nashville, Tennessee, looks like a million other similar places around America, and I was hoping to create a painting that expressed hope and despair at the same time."  -Steven Kozar. 

"This is an unusual painting compared to much of the work I normally do. I photographed this beautiful sunset in our neighborhood but I added the wide-open "Tuscany" type of landscape from my imagination. It was a really fun experiment and I think it comes across as a cohesive and appealing landscape painting."  -Steven Kozar

"This is the view on the road leading to Blue Mounds, Wisconsin, where my family and I lived for many years. On this summer evening there was an amazing sunset and I loved capturing the essence of this scene in a slightly looser style of oil painting."  -Steven Kozar

"This open meadow is actually right in my neighborhood-after a heavy rain it became a temporary pond. I love finding the beauty that's nearby and portraying it in a painting. This is an oil painting that I intentionally painted in a faster and looser style, which is something I really enjoy doing after spending months on a really tediously detailed painting."  -Steven Kozar

"This is a fun composition that I put together with a skull borrowed from my daughter's college art class a while back. I intentionally put contrasting warm and cool light on either side to give it some drama and a broader range of colors to paint."  -Steven Kozar