Timo Peltonen lived in a house surrounded by meadows and trees just outside of Korpilahti until his death. He spent the first twenty years of his life in boys’ orphanages even though his parents were still alive. He only met his parents in his teens and learned that he came from an artistic family.
In the orphanages Timo Peltonen painted with lacquer paint. As an adult and married he worked first as a lumberjack, then for twenty-nine years on the railroads. He began sculpting after his retirement in 1988. His first animal, created with a chainsaw, was a bear. He has made large animals as well as smaller works, with nature as his source of inspiration.