Years ago I spent the weeks leading up to Christmas painting shop windows. It was a fun job (in a cold sort of way) and I loved it. When I was chatting to Tom, an old friend from Limerick and super-talented sign writer, the Christmas windows came up and we started reminiscing about the good old days of acrylic turkeys, holly, frozen hands and cups of tea and we decided to join forces again and spend a few days painting local shop windows for charity. 

We got excited about the option of going a bit more abstract with a limited colour palette and see what would happen. Tom pulled out all the stops, found a bunch of local businesses willing to support us and whipped everything up into “Alternative Christmas Windows”, a project in aid of a local suicide prevention charity.

I have been doodling and drawing since and a host of mad characters turned up. Mechanical robins, abstract mittens belonging to Mrs Santa, flying skates and fake-snow machines… I have narrowed down a list of motifs I want to include in each window and now I am drawing them over and over to get a feel for their lines and components. I am planning to trace them on to clear sheets to make it easier to sketch their mirror image..

I am heading to Limerick tomorrow and we’ll be working our way across town over the next couple of days. Come and say hello if you see us on the street. Oh, and of course don’t forget to leave your spare change in one of the collection boxes - they look like fake-snow machines.