Gojmir Anton Kos made his debut on the art scene in Ljubljana in the period after World War I, a time characterized by the work of expressionist artists. Kos’s artistic approach was different, and is often described as color realism. One characteristic of color realist painting in Slovenia was following moderate modernist trends in European (and particularly French) painting of the time, thus giving emphasis to traditional motifs and color. By the 1920s, Kos had already chosen his main genres; the larger part of his oeuvre comprises various figurative compositions, still lifes and portraits.

The portrait Man with Parrot is one of Kos’s early works. The sitter is placed centrally in the pictorial space that is barely indicated, with the figure dominating it with its presence and dynamic posture. Most prominent in the painting are the colors, applied in a thick impasto in large patches or in long furrows standing out in relief. The painter built and underscored the composition with the dominant black. The furrowed applications of paint and the black are further emphasized with the contrasting whiteness of the man’s shirt, the ochre-reddish hues of his face, and the light, vivid colors of the parrot and the color patches on the other side of the male figure. Comparing this painting with some of Kos's self-portraits suggests that this could also be a depiction of the artist himself.

After World War II, Kos was appointed professor at the newly established Academy of Fine Arts in Ljubljana. His art continued to be characterized by its emphasis on color, traditional motifs, and thick applications of paint in large patches. His motifs, however, gradually became increasingly abstract, as evident in his paintings Still Life with a Wine Glass (1959) and Still Life with Red Patches (1961).