Steven Kozar

medium: painting

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Autumn Leaves - Long Shadows 2001 Painting	Farmland Morning in Dane County 2001 Painting	Lone Tree #2 2002 Painting
Misty Morning - Spring Trees 2001 Painting	Quiet Summer Morning 1992 Painting	Ripening Pumpkins 2001 Painting
Spring Morning - Elvers Creek 2001 Painting	Winter at the Donald Farm 2002 Painting	Winter Solitude 2001 Painting
Autumn at the Union Terrace 2004 Painting

Contact information
6301 Holscher Road
McFarland, WI 53558
Phone Number: 608-335-7004
Email Address: steve@stevenkozar.com
Web site: www.stevenkozar.com

Artist statement
I am primarily a landscape painter, although I love many other forms of artistic expression. I've been drawn to the Wisconsin landscape ever since I was a boy, and my family took various trips to the state (I grew up in Lake Zurich, IL). I was inspired by the work of Andrew Wyeth in high school, but in art school I really got emotionally charged by the landscape paintings of James Winn and Harold Gregor. I've also had a deep regard for the photo-realist paintings of Richard Estes and Ralph Goings. My work is an attempt to portray the real-world beauty that I see on a daily basis, as well an attempt to express the human and abstract response to the sublime in Nature.

I routinely travel the rural roads where I live and capture my compositions on slide film. Using my slides as a starting point, I make brief sketches of the overall shapes and forms, paying close attention to the final shape the painting will assume. The intricate detail is the "icing on the cake," as I hope the abstract quality of the work, with its strong contrasts and colors, actually attracts the viewer's attention.

Biography
Attended Illinois State University in 1984-85; American Academy of Art in 1985-86. Began full-time painting in 1986 at age 22. Began exhibiting in Chicago at Samuel Stein Fine Arts that year. Solo exhibit at the Rockford Art Museum in 1988. Has exhibited at Capricorn Galleries, Bethesda, MD; Hollis Taggart Galleries, Washington, D.C.; Fletcher Gallery, Santa Fe, NM, among others. Created new paintings for The Wisconsin Foundation for the Arts' Governors Awards, presented in November, 2002.