John Kazary, a longtime leader of the Doylestown Art League, has oil paintings on display at the Bucks County Bar Association at State and Church Streets in downtown Doylestown.

Kazary is a Bucks County native who grew up in Warrington and Doylestown. He paints in a loose, impressionistic style and favors subjects showing people in motion, Bucks County Magazine reported in a Sept. 12 profile.

"If you can't be good, be different," Kazary told the magazine.

That line referred to a cubist portrait of Henry Mercer and his dog, Rollo, which earned the Doylestown Art League's Best Oil Painting award. Kazary discovered cubism around 1995 and joined the league around 1996.

His work also appears in the league's members gallery, which lists his charcoal-and-pastel piece "Gillian" and the oil painting "Omelette Station."

Kazary's path to painting wound through several careers. According to his website, he graduated from Bucknell University, spent a year at the Rhode Island School of Music studying jazz composition and piano, then earned a law degree from Ohio Northern University. He practiced law, became part owner of a trailer manufacturing company and rose to vice president at a regional bank. He played Dixieland piano at Gobblers, a nightclub in Point Pleasant, for 15 years.

Now retired, Kazary works from a home studio. He starts every painting with his own photographs, printing color and black-and-white versions to study light values before sketching onto white canvas with raw umber acrylic. He layers oils on top.

He has self-published two books of poetry and is working on a third. He also continues to compose and arrange music for big bands and small combos.

No end date for the bar association exhibit has been announced. Kazary's paintings can be viewed online at johnkazary.com.