LIMA—John McFarland was in his early 80s the first time he put a paintbrush to canvas. Less than a year later, the 83-year-old Lima resident had his first sell-out art show.

“I’m not taking any claims as an artist,” Mr. McFarland still insists. “It’s just kind of a hobby for me.”

Between raising seven children, working to support his family and staying involved in the Catholic community of Lima, Mr. McFarland never had time for such a hobby in his younger years. He remained busy for most of his 18 years of retirement, too.

But a stroke in March 2004 left Mr. McFarland paralyzed on his right and dominant side from the neck down and confined to a wheelchair.

Soon after he suffered the stroke, his youngest child, Bridget Guagenti, began searching for an activity that would help her father find a sense of accomplishment despite the limitations of his disability.

She says her father had always been “somewhat of an artist” with an ability to draw, so she called Art Space Lima, a nonprofit art organization, to ask about finding an art teacher. “My father was always active,” says Mrs. Guagenti. “I was just trying to find something he could fill his time with.”

She was referred to Ruth Ann Sturgill, a painter who teaches through Art Space Lima and her own studio. Ms. Sturgill had never worked with someone recovering from a stroke and recalls feeling uncertain that she was qualified. But the first time she met Mr. McFarland, he began teasing her right away and she teased back, and “it was just like we bonded right away.”

The teacher and her student had something else to bond over: Ms. Sturgill had suffered a herniated disk in her spine just prior to their first lesson. The injury limited the use of her right side while the nerve regenerated, so she taught him to use his left hand at the same time she was learning to use her own.

Mr. McFarland began painting in December 2004, and Mrs. Guagenti still recalls what her father said to her after completing his first piece: “Look Bridget, I accomplished something.”

As the months passed, Ms. Sturgill noticed her student was “piling up the paintings.” She suggested an art show, and arranged for it at Art Space Lima.

Every one of the 12 paintings in the September 2005 show sold during the opening reception, according to Ms. Sturgill. “That’s pretty phenomenal,” she adds.  Many of the paintings sold to friends of Mr. McFarland in the Catholic community of Lima where he has lived since he was born in 1924.

A graduate of St. Gerard School, which at the time included an elementary and high school, Mr. McFarland was drafted into the U.S. Army out of high school and served three years during World War II.

After he came home he married his wife, Elizabeth. The couple spent 49 years together before her death six years ago.

They sent all seven of their children to Lima St. Charles School and Lima Central Catholic High School (LCC), a path many of his grandchildren are now following. Mr. McFarland served on the St. Charles school board, and he was elected to the original school board of LCC because he was so well known in all the Lima parishes.

Inspired by the Redemptorist priests stationed at St. Gerard during his childhood, he became a charter member of the Lima Serra Club in 1965 and served as its first elected president. The group, now with more than 80 members in three counties, promotes religious vocations among young people and supports seminarians, priests and religious.

“The Serra Club was very important to me,” says Mr. McFarland. “I missed very few meetings.”

Mrs. Guagenti calls her father a “great example of the Catholic faith at work.” She has learned from him that she can always “take comfort in the Catholic faith and community.”