Mother-daughter duo spreads Cherry Blossom Festival spirit with car window paintings

“I have actually now been painting for somebody's grandmother, their mother, and now I'm painting the young girls' cars,” said Peggy Whyte, owner of Peggy’s Personal Touch.

MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – A mother-daughter duo is turning cars into rolling works of art, helping Middle Georgia get into the Cherry Blossom Festival spirit.

Designs were painted on several vehicle windows Wednesday with an emphasis on the dates of this year’s Cherry Blossom Festival, which starts March 21.

Vehicles with writing designs start at $25, but prices can range from $10-$30, depending on what you want.

We spoke with Peggy Whyte, owner of Peggy’s Personal Touch who has been painting for 34 years, about how she got started painting on the “Cherry Blossom Express.”

“I painted on the city bus, and I got great advertising, because I put full petals on the cherry blossoms,” said Whyte. “The Cherry Blossom Headquarters here asked if I could paint their windows for the cars, and then people in the community started asking me to paint, and it just went on from there.”

“I have actually now been painting for somebody’s grandmother, their mother, and now I’m painting the young girls’ cars,” she added.

“I’ve raised my children on the job, she said. “My daughter, and my son was three months old when I painted the bus, and he was with me in his little car seat, and then as the two children grew, they remembered playing here as children, and now we have three generations on the job, because I have two grandchildren here as well.”

“My daughter is planning to take over from me when I decide to stop, and maybe her boys will want to do it, I don’t know,” she said.

Whyte says her style of painting is a trade secret and that other Cherry Blossom painters in the area paint different designs.

“We painted last weekend, and the weather was beautiful, but I think we didn’t really get the word out early enough,” she said. “But I think there’s enough cars out there that people are now interested.”

If you want your car painted, they will be at the old Acme building near the intersection of Riverside Drive and Ingleside Avenue this Saturday, March 1, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and next Saturday, March 8, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

You can also reach Whyte by phone at (478) 737-3059.