Tom Panei restoring Punxsutawney Phil statues
Likenesses of Punxsutawney Phil take many forms in the small Jefferson County town the weather predicting groundhog was named after and a local artist is working to restore some of them to their original vibrance.
Butler artist Tom Panei is restoring dozens of 6-foot-tall, hollow, fiberglass statues of Phil that decorate the outside of many businesses and government buildings in Punxsutawney. Additionally, he is applying fresh paint to about a half dozen new statues for the Punxsutawney Chamber of Commerce.
Folks in Punxsutawney refer to the statues as “Phils.”
He is restoring one older Phil and getting ready to paint a new one. He said he’s glad the Phils are being delivered to his studio and picked up after he is finished.
“I never knew how they big are,” Panei said Tuesday.
He is expecting to restore about 46 Phils and doing the original painting on five or six new Phils. He said he wasn’t given a deadline, but plans to finish the work as quickly as he can.
Each of the existing Phils is uniquely painted and embellished to reflect the businesses that sponsor them. Customers visiting a hardware store are greeted by a Phil holding a rake, he said.
“They all have something unique” Panei said.
Restoring an older Phil is more challenging than painting a new one, Panei said. He has to match the multiple colors used in the old, faded and chipped paint scheme and restore the embellishments without repainting the entire statue. He said the design on older statues would be lost if he had to completely repaint them. Cracks in the older Phils also must be repaired.
“You don’t want to see the repair. You want it to blend in,” Panei said.
He said he uses outdoor mural acrylic paint on the Phils. All them will receive a layer of clear coat to protect them from the weather.
The businesses sponsoring the new Phil statues will let him know how they want them painted, he said. The new statues are sanded and painted with primer before getting their final coatings.
Word of Panei’s latest project has spread.
“A lot of people call and want to come see them,” he said.
