Art in Real Life #4
Painting Personalized Peg People
Welcome to Art in Real Life #4!
Ages ago, when I was a young mom, I began to learn to paint. My first consistent class was a toll painting class in our neighborhood. For those of you who know what toll painting is, you must be in a similar age group. Basically it consisted of decoratively painting on wood. It is where I fell in love with painting and then started to sell my painted wares at holiday markets etc. My favorite things to paint were items children could enjoy playing with as well as decorative.
Earlier this year I needed to fill up my joy bucket, and for me one of the best ways to fill that bucket is to create something. I got the idea of buying some unfinished wood toys and painting them for the young grandkids. It’s been a lot of fun painting a doll house, vehicle with peg people, and a even tree house.
Comfort through Creativity
The idea of painting personalized peg people came about while I was seeking comfort. When I thought about my family and the upcoming holidays I began to feel sad considering how the past few years has caused separation in our family, both physical separation with some moving across country and then some interpersonal struggles between some family members. With all that has gone on in the world the past few years, I have a feeling I am not alone in this. I asked myself, ‘What can I do?’ ‘What can help?’ ‘How can I regain joy in a healthy way that is good for me and blesses my family?’
After painting a few toys and two peg people, I found the painting as enjoyable as it was years ago. When I saw how much the young grandchildren enjoyed playing with them it made me so happy and was definitely the inspiration I needed to jump into the project.
I decided to paint each person in our family and make two of each one - one to send each of our grown children’s families and one set of our entire family to keep at our home for the grands to play with when they come, and for a reminder for me to pray for each person.
Pray - Paint - Play
Painting each person’s peg doll has been a good way for me to think of them with blessing and pray for them. As I planned and draw each one, I ask myself things like: If this person were a color, what would they be? What things do they like to do? What are their strengths and gifts? Then I ask God for insight and pray for the person specifically, blessing them to be all they were created to be, for peace, unity and anything else that comes to mind. It’s also just plain fun. I’m painting them by family groups, so it prompts me to pray for them as families too.
Below you see the first family is done. I’m excited to paint them all!
Art Reflecting Life
My sweet granddaughters are my encouragement as they ‘test’ the product and play. They love playing with their personalized family. Even though some of the other grandchildren are older I think they will enjoy a Christmas decoration that is unique to them. I think their parents will appreciate them too.
While looking for peg people, I found a set of five peg people, four that have hats. I realized that if I painted them different races, we could sing ‘Jesus Loves the Little Children of the World’ with the peg people.
Jesus loves the little children,
all the children of the world
red, brown, yellow, black and white,
they are precious in His sight.
Jesus loves the little children of the world.
The house shelf below holds the peg people and keeps me organized and inspired. There are links to the wood supplies at the end of this post.
Just keep making…just keep blessing…
As you can see from the house shelf above, I have quite a bit of painting yet to do. I’ll keep you posted when I get done. The plan is to send each family their personalized peg people in a wooden box that includes a family photo of us all - as peg people. I’m still hoping and praying we will all be together soon…
Blessings of joy to you!
Valerie
Supply Links
To begin the peg people I sand them lightly and either use a clear gesso primer for the wood to show through or paint a skin color on the head and sometimes the arms. I use fluid acrylic paints, both craft and fine art paints, and round brushes with some quite small that come to a good point. Permanent markers will also work for fine line drawing. When dry I spray varnish them. The kids love them!
48 piece set of unfinished unpainted wood peg dolls
20 piece set of unfinished unpainted wood peg dolls, larger
Set of 5 unfinished, unpainted wood peg dolls (4 with hats - children of the world)
Unfinished, unpainted wood house shelf
Unfinished, unpainted wood mushroom set
Unfinished, unpainted wood box with hinged lid, set of 4
The Amazon links above are from products I have purchased and used in the above post. If you click on the link and purchase I receive a small commission. It doesn’t cost you anything. A win/win! Thank you for your support.