As a teenager in Gig Harbor, it seemed natural for Ezra Suko to paint.

“It’s a beautiful place to grow up,” said Suko, 31, who returned to his hometown last weekend to paint at the Gig Harbor Art Walk and share some of his recent experiences as a mortarman in Iraq. Now he’s a fledgling artist in Los Angeles.

He was 14 when he asked his father, also a painter, for some supplies to try to capture on canvas some of the natural beauty Suko observed as he hiked and explored the area.

“I just had this desire,” he said. “And my dad pulled his old stuff out of the attic and let me start using them, and I haven’t looked back ever since.”

Suko has been painting for years now, but his budding career was interrupted by another calling. In 2006, Suko’s brother-in-law, Gabriel DeRoo, was killed in action in Mosul, Iraq. DeRoo had been something of a role model, and his death profoundly affected Suko.

“That really got me thinking about following in his footsteps,” Suko said. In March 2008, Suko left his job as a housepainter in Gig Harbor and Tacoma and, along with his brother, Elijah, enlisted in the U.S. Army. He and Elijah went through boot camp together and coincidentally were both assigned to the same unit. They were stationed at Fort Hood, Texas, and then deployed together to Mosul.

“It was ... a difficult environment to paint in,” Suko said of his time in the service. He created a few works, including one, a rendering of his hometown, that he recently sold.

And once his superior officers found out he was an artist, Suko said, “they basically ordered me to paint stuff.” He painted logos and insignias for his unit at their barracks, and murals on the walls of the Iraqi cities where he was stationed.

Suko went back to Iraq on a second tour in the south of Baghdad. On a stop through the airport in Austin, Texas, he had a chance encounter with Heather Shrake, who noticed his uniform and thanked him for his service. A series of coincidences at the airport drew the two into conversation, and they eventually began a long-distance relationship.

Suko returned from Iraq a year ago and promptly moved to Los Angeles, where Shrake lives, and the couple is now engaged. Living in Southern California has provided Suko with a few career opportunities.

He’s shown his work at Gig Harbor’s Water’s Edge Gallery and Framery, where he demonstrated at Saturday’s art walk, for the past 10 years, and he also has had paintings featured at galleries in Port Orchard, Port Townsend and other regional locations. Now he’s a featured artist at Tirage Fine Art Gallery in Pasadena, Calif., where he’s the youngest of a roster of nationally recognized painters.

“I feel like I’m starting to really hit my stride again,” Suko said. The transition back into painting since his return from Iraq has been challenging, he said, but he’s starting to feel like a full-time painter again. “Things are going great now, and the paintings are selling,” he said.

Suko described his style as “between realism and impressionism.” He created five new works for display at Water’s Edge that show the same angle of the harbor at five different times of day. He created the works from sketches he had done when he was back home, as well as partially from memory.

“I like to use my imagination, keep some softness and just paint something that I emotionally connect with,” Suko said.

For now, Suko hopes to more fully immerse himself in his resurgent art career, now back on track after his 3 1/2-year stint in service. He and Shrake plan to start a family in Los Angeles, where she operates her own fashion company. Suko wants to get his work into more galleries, and he also would like to work more on commission from patrons who notice his work. Contact information can be found on his website. He’s also speaking with one of his former sergeant majors about a series of military-themed works that could be commissioned in the future.

After his time in the military, though, Suko is most eager to see what comes next with his career as a civilian artist. “It’s just exciting to not know exactly where it’ll take me, but it’ll be an adventure,” he said.