John Terelak, an American impressionist, grew up in Boston, where he remembers his youth as a time filled with sports and athletic prowess.

But even as a teenager, he would realize his fine motor talents were a source of untapped creativity.

After he graduated from high school in 1960, he worked in the press room of Rust Craft Greeting Cards, when a foreman saw him drawing a card.

"He said, 'why don't you go to art school and we'll put you up in the art department?'" recalled Terelak.

On a whim, he attended the Vesper George School of Fine Art in Boston.

"All the kids I grew up with remember me drawing but I don't remember that," said Terelak. "I remember being a jock and playing all the sports. I must have taken it for granted. But halfway through art school, I got hit over the head by the Lord and saw that I can paint pictures. It was like 'wow.' I started painting and visiting all the galleries and absorbing all the art I could."

That epiphany changed the course of his future.

Terelak's mother insisted her son get a job. To pacify his mother, the young man went to an advertising agency on Boston's Boylston Street, where he met commercial artist Martin Ahearn.

"He didn't hire me," recalled Terelak. "I continued to paint and went to Rockport."

Unbeknownst to both men, years later Terelak would meet Ahearn's daughter, Patricia Ahearn, who would become his wife and mother of their four children.

"When I left his agency, I said thank God he didn't hire me, but I'm going to get even with him," he said with a chuckle. Terelak remembered the day he asked Ahearn if he remembered the time they first met at the agency, and then informed him of their wedding plans.

Both men would develop long careers in fine art.

Terelak came to Rockport, a thriving art colony, at the invitation of Don Stone, one of his teachers at art school who saw a natural talent in the young student.

"I moved here when I was 19 because I had a scholarship to paint with Don Stone," said Terelak.

Stone, a modernist impressionist painter, said he thought Rockport would be a better environment for the young artist to expand his abilities.

"He lived with us in the South Street house for four to five years and he worked with me for a while and through my associates, he had a chance to develop his talent," said Stone, a member of the National Academy and a Dolphin Fellow of the American Watercolor Society. "He's done very well. Like the majority of us (artists), we go out and search. It's a self educational type of life."

Stone wanted to give a young artist a chance, like a Rockport artist had done for him decades earlier when he was an aspiring artist.

"Paul Strisik — also a National Academician — was my mentor, and I swore I would do what I could for somebody else because I was so grateful," said Stone.

Terelak himself went on to teach for a few years at the Vesper George art school. An army reservist who served actively for a short time at the age of 24, he made Rockport his home.

"I found an artist's life here and soon after I met Pat," whom he married a couple of years later.

Forty-five years later, Terelak remains enchanted with his chosen profession.

"I'm a blessed man to paint pictures for my life and make a good living from it," he said. "I love every minute of it. I think I'm starting to mature as a painter and I hope I have another 50 years."

He has excelled in the various media. He started off in watercolor, went to acyclic and pastel. He was a past president of the New England Watercolor Society at the age of 28.

"But working in oil has always been my first love," said Terelak. "I went from Renaissance dark painting to an impressionistic style, to eventually my own style of painting where there's a lot of different elements of art I keep honing. I see a subtle change from year to year. But every painting is a new adventure and there is something new to be learned in each one."

Terelak said he believes this is his best show yet, in part, as a result of the poor economy.

"I think this bad economy has made me a better painter simply because I was not in any hurry to finish any painting and I took more time and made them better. I did slow down and went over my paintings many times," he said.

Terelak's works have been included in exhibitions at The National Academy of Design, The Boston Museum of Fine Arts, The Springfield Museum, and The Butler Museum, among others. He is represented by galleries in Rockport, Nantucket and Connecticut.

"I have been given a gift from God that I have cherished my whole adult life," wrote Terelak in an artist statement. "I have always thought art is man's most glowing achievement. ... I believe that all art is a testament to the human spirit, and that every good artist lets his and her soul escape into their art."

Gail McCarthy can be reached at 978-283-7000, x3445, or via e-mail at gmccarthy@gloucestertimes.com.

IMPRESSIONS

What: New Works by John Terelak, Rockport impressionist, in one-man show

Where: The Guild of Boston Artists, 162 Newbury St. in Boston.

When: Nov. 5-29, with opening reception tonight from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.

Saturday, 2 p.m., Terelak will discuss his work in the president's gallery.

For more information: visit www.terelak.com.