Retired Mentor Firefighter's Painting Displayed at Art Show

It could be said Jim Polewchak sees beauty all around. The truth perhaps is he feels beauty all around.

Polewchak’s original oil on canvas paintings were on display March 19 at Lake Metroparks Penitentiary Glen Nature Center . He will return for another showing on May 15.

He paints using a method known as plein air, a French term meaning in the open air. He first learned this technique while an art student in 1965 when his art teacher took the class outside to paint.

After a stint in the military, Polewchak worked as a firefighter for Mentor until a back injury sent him off in another direction. After that injury, he devoted most of his time to his business of hand-carving elaborate signs. One of his first pieces is the sign now standing at St. Gabriel Church on Route 84 in Concord.

Today, he says, computers run routers to carve wood signs.

“My signs were all done by hand and yes, a good eye can tell the difference.”

And today’s world of computers and video games and all-day television is a different place than the one he grew up in.

“You know as children, we used to take those huge crates appliances were shipped in and we’d drag them outside and we’d play in them. My gosh, we’d play outside all day,” he said.

One may get the sense, after viewing his art, Jim Polewchak is still playing outside.

His playground, as reflected in his art, is located in the heart and soul of Lake Metroparks, and he plays down the road under the old trees, alongside the creeks and rivers, in the shadows of old schoolhouses.

Painting, he says, helps him relax and center himself.