Is It Time for Venus Paradise Coloring Sets to Return?

Adult coloring.  It is gaining popularity right now in the United States.  Our local public library even has a Wednesday evening adult coloring class club.

A blogger who blogs at Fifty Jewels even emailed me some coloring pages yesterday.

So many choices.

Westover, near Johnson City, New York, November 7

But, even with all of these adult coloring pages, I still want to return to my childhood.  When I see a sky like this, it reminds me of the Venus Paradise coloring sets of my youth.

I wish someone would bring those sets back, and the pencils that came with them.  There is a company, fortunately, still making sets like them.

But never mind that.  I want my Venus Paradise sets to return.  Now that adult coloring is back, perhaps someone could get these started up again?

I still miss Peacock Blue, #7.  Artists miss the pencils, too - they say they were high quality.

Take a trip down memory lane (if you remember them, and even if you don't remember them) with me.  I've republished this post a couple of times since I first blogged it in 2011 - it is one of my favorite posts.

Color By Number - Memories of Paradise

Yesterday evening, coming home from my water aerobics class, the sky reminded me of the sky of a color by number painting.  All those shades of blue and light purple.

Do you remember color by number?  It was really popular in the 1950's and early 1960's, when I was growing up.   You can still find color by number in paint today.  But what my family loved was the Venus Paradise sets.  They were color pencil color by numbers.  They had sets geared to all ages - from children old enough to color to adults.

The pencils were numbered, and you got the pencils you needed for your set with the set.  My favorite was #7, Peacock Blue. You can even find the list of colors online (except for two "mystery colors").  It would seem that some older artists miss them, too - they were high quality but as a child, I just took them for granted.

My Dad and I would color together.  I would have my child's set and he an adult set.  I remember one in particular, set with famous buildings.  I remember him in particular working on a Taj Mahal picture.  I looked at him color with great concentration.  He put wax paper on top of the part of the picture he had completed so it would not smear.

His picture had so much detail.  You could barely make out some of the numbers in the small portions.  But I would grow up one day and be able to do complicated pictures just like my Dad!

Except I lost interest, until my son was born.

I went to all the stores (when he was old enough to color) and no one had them.  In fact, I couldn't find any kind of color by number pencil art set, period.

Venus Paradise is out of business.  And, I couldn't even find a set on eBay (I did find a couple of auctions for the pencils.)

The good news is that there is a pencil color by number set out there now. Better yet, the people who own the business remember Venus Paradise.  So perhaps a new generation of children will remember pencil by number sets fondly.

In writing this post, I find my spouse remembers the sets too.  He thinks when he retires, it might be fun to buy one.  But sadly, this is something I'm not sure will ever return to favor for the general population.

So....do you remember Venus Paradise?