CAMBRIDGE — Jeff Ferst’s second chance at life jumps from his canvas, a luxurious crazy quilt of colour and energy that beckons the child in you to touch the textured surface.

These aren’t the passive landscapes and still life images he painted before death came knocking on a warm summer night in June 2005.

Ferst remembers supper-hour fire in a house across the street. At 11 p.m., without warning, his heart’s electrical system went haywire, wiggling crazily but not pumping any blood. His lips were turning blue.

Firefighters were still parked outside, cleaning up after the blaze. They grabbed a defibrillator and shocked his heart back into a regular rhythm while calling for an ambulance.

Three days later in hospital, doctors told Ferst told he suffered “sudden cardiac death” for reasons unknown. He remembers nothing of what happened to him. Today, he has an automatic defibrillator implanted in his chest, as insurance against another episode.

Before the soul-rattling event, Ferst remembers he was deliberate when picking up his brushes. He knew what he wanted to create. Today, same images are still there, but they’re chopped up and reassembled into abstract geometric patterns. It’s like they have a life of their own.

“I don’t really have a pre-conceived notion of what I’m going to paint,” he said.

“It’s really like a conduit between me and the canvas . . . I feel I’m much more content with my work. I enjoy it.”

Ferst doesn’t try to dig too deep into the circumstances of his revival; why the fates appear content to let him stick around.

“It sometimes makes me wonder, am I here for a purpose? Am I supposed to save somebody from getting hit by a bus? I don’t know.”

Ferst, 54, was born in New York City and is a holds bachelor of science in fine arts from New York. He came to Toronto in 1978 after years travelling the U.S. and Europe. His sister married a Canadian, which prompted him to head north because he always liked Canada.

He was manager of design services at office supply company Grand and Toy until 1992, when he headed to Stratford to open run his own business making specialty sauces and salad dressings. The next move was to London, Ont, when he opened a store for his goods. His last move was in 2000 as he followed a relationship east along Highway 401.

Always a painter, he put his mind to it in Cambridge while continuing work at a marketing association, and as an event and conference organizer.

He opened a studio on Parkhill Road last fall, after years of painting in a corner of his living room. “I needed to grow and found the right space.”

Studios across Canada sell his oil originals — ranging in price from $500 to $9,000 — and he’s recently licenced reproduction of some as high-end prints on canvas. His paintings will be on display at the Toronto Art Expo Feb. 25 to Feb. 28 in the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.

Ferst said he always had the urge to paint, but sometimes he sounds more of a pragmatist than an artist. The time he spent working other jobs — and still working other jobs — isn’t the hurdle some might expect. For him, it’s a part of the creative process.

“It’s tough to do it, but don’t get upset on the fact that you have to share it with other things in your life.”