Peggy Collins: Artist Spotlight

If you’ve ever done one of those super vibrant puzzles filled with animals and bold colors and thought, “This image is just plain fun,” there’s a good chance it came from the talented mind of Peggy Collins. Peggy is a digital artist with a serious love for animals and color, and her work has been featured with GoodWay Puzzles and some of our top brands. Here, you can see all of Peggy Collins puzzles that are available.

I had the chance to learn more about her background, inspiration, and process, and I’m so excited to share her story. Let’s get into it!

Tell us a little about your journey as an artist—how did you get started?

I come from a family of artists so I'm sure that had an influence on me. My father and grandmother were both painters and my dad supported the family with his career in commercial art. My first interest though was nature photography which really developed when I moved to an area of British Columbia that had abundant wildlife. After spending a couple of decades photographing wildlife I wanted to expand my horizons so I started playing around with digital art. It seemed like a natural progression since I was already processing photographs in Photoshop. When I eventually bought an iPad, my artistic world really expanded.

Blue Jay in the Summer by Springbok

What kinds of subjects are you most drawn to in your artwork?

As far as subjects go, my background in nature photography made me gravitate towards animal art. I also do a lot of pet art because I've owned lots of different pets...cats, dogs, rabbits, turtles, budgies, gerbils, and hamsters. I love to experiment with different styles so I'm kind of all over the place trying various looks. One thing for sure though is I love colorful imagery and I'm attracted to upbeat, cheerful, and whimsical artwork so hopefully that's reflected in my work.

Pippi in the Poppies by GoodWay Puzzles

Do you have any artistic influences?

I never had much of an education in the arts so I don't think I'm particularly influenced by any specific artists to any degree although I do like to sometimes use a particular artist's technique or look. The main influence to my artwork is probably my background and interest in various crafts because I like to try to recreate the looks of things like stained glass and quilting. Before delving into art I spent decades creating my own line of jewelry which included hand-dyed coconut shells, beads and wirework, and kiln-fired glass in many forms including dichroic, enamelling, and etching. I'm sure that playing around with color when dying coconut shells and creating dichroic glass cabochons probably had a big influence on me.

Quilted Frolic in the Field by MasterPieces

How did your artwork end up on jigsaw puzzles?

Having my artwork on puzzles was a happy accident but interestingly, it's something my mother used to mention as a goal for one of her kids because my family used to do puzzles. I've been lucky to have puzzle companies approach me through my fine art website.

In your opinion, what makes a great puzzle image?

I think colorful images with lots of details makes a great puzzle. It's a bonus if the artwork tells a story too.

Treasure Island by Heritage Puzzles

Do you ever hear from puzzlers who’ve completed your work?

I live in a very small home so I don't have any room for puzzling...and creating artwork takes up most of my time too! But I do occasionally hear from people who have done my puzzles and I'm thrilled when they send me a photo of the finished puzzle, which they often do.

Hummingbird and Hibiscus by Sunsout

What does your creative process look like?

These days I mostly start my artwork digitally but I sometimes combine photographs and occasionally also use a painting I've done to achieve a certain look. When I was doing a lot of commissioned pet portraits, clients would send me photographs of their pet to work from and I would layer the photo into the finished work. I love combining elements from various images and I use quite a few different programs, but everything always comes together in Photoshop in the end.

How do you decide what art gets licensed for puzzles?

I don't really decide who to license my artwork to for puzzles as opposed to other products. I've always created my artwork with fine art in mind as a beginning point and luckily I've been approached for licensing for various products. I will say though that the more images I've licensed for puzzles, the more often my mind naturally gravitates towards creating artwork that I think would make a good puzzle.

Kaleidoscope - Forest Master by MasterPieces

Do you have a favorite piece you've created?

If I was forced to choose a favorite image, it might have to be Bear Flowers Zentangle. (Also known as Kaleidoscope - Forest Master which was created into a puzzle by MasterPieces (Shown Above). That one's an example of artwork that sprang from a personal experience. In this case, it was a huge black bear that I'd photographed a couple of times. The last time I photographed him, he had a mouthful of grass. I livened up the memory of that experience by creating artwork of him surrounded by tropical flowers. I thought he deserved a colorful tribute!

Thank you so much to Peggy Collins for sharing her story with us! You can find her artwork on puzzles through GoodWay Puzzles and several of our favorite brands. Keep an eye out—you never know when her cheerful animal friends might end up on your puzzle table!