https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgr1z274k5wo

https://archive.is/1UHMg

I swear I remember this was a thing at some point in history, wandering artists plying their craft to petite bourgeois shop owners in order to afford to keep a roof over their head. Wish I paid more attention in art history class lmao.

Small businesses have a lot to contend with these days - not least standing out from the crowd and drawing customers in. Some of them are increasingly turning to window art to beautify their shopfronts and lure us in for a closer look. Who's behind these beautiful creations - and is it really boosting business?

They're really pretty. I know I'd stop and rubberneck 'em for a good minute.

Wearing a pair of headphones and paint-splattered clothes, the woman in the window is concentrating hard. She might be focussed on creating a snowy Victorian street scene, or an incredibly detailed polar bear, or cosy Alpine log cabins for Christmas - but the twist is, she's doing it all backwards.

It's a matter of perspective innit?

The artist, Juliet Townsend, has been travelling all over her native Essex and further afield as demand for her window displays grows year by year.

Good on her, hopefully her work keeps her out of Great Yarmouth and Norfolk-by-the-sea!

"I started during Covid by painting on the village pub's windows," she recalls.

Down a pint while yer getting an eyeful, as oi always say!

"I'd been working with them on some marketing plans, and the first thing I did was paint some remembrance poppies. Then I did an advent calendar where I went in every day and wiped the number off, and painted a new picture.

Blimey, that's quite a commitment to the bit, and the pay, to keep redoing your work for round 25 days straight.

"It sort of spiralled from there."

No doubt.

Given she's designing the window from the inside, Juliet is having to paint in reverse.

It's a matter of perspective, innit?

Five years on, window artistry is Juliet's full time career, and over that time she's created hundreds of designs for small businesses while building up a following on social media.

Well that's quite lovely. Happy it's worked out for her.

She's one of a growing number of window artists popping up all over England, including these Christmas-themed doodles in Shropshire and some intricate wintery designs in Southampton.

Shrop-shurr an' sud'amptin getting a shoutout!

An independent book shop in Maldon, Essex, has had several of Ms Townsend's designs in recent years, featuring everything from woodland animals reading classic children's books to specially-commissioned tie-ins for big book launches.

Oh that's just adorable. She would've been amazing if this was happening back in the day Brian Jaques was releasing his Redwall series books.

"People will say, 'oh, that's really brightened my day', or 'I just really like your windows'," says owner Olivia Rosenthal.

Absolute agree. Art is bean soup for the soul.

"It really lifts the space. People often come in just to say that they look really lovely and then stay in and browse, maybe buy something."

Maybe buy a noice wahrm smark barm pey weht.

Former coffee shop owner Ash Field, 39, started painting his cafe windows "to bring people in" and uses the art and design skills he'd studied in the past.

Shame we can't have this kind of lovely art stateside, we'd probably fuck it up by some corpo Demon hyper-commodifying it to the point they make laws about only letting corporate-approved AI slop-erators vomit it on window surfaces.

His artwork at a local cafe in Leigh-on-Sea near Southend in 2018 caught people's attention: "Lots and lots of owners wanted to have it as well, and the next year even more of them did, and it became a real thing - especially around Christmas."

What's up with all these funky British names anyways. Lay on sea? Float in the water? South end? South of what end?

Mr Field said during the pandemic, lockdown played a part in the increase in demand as "businesses really wanted to do something to connect to the community" during a very uncertain time.

Plague rats come in and buy our shit

"Then it really started to go kind of national, and I went as far up as Edinburgh, we went to Wales and travelled the country painting windows - it was really exciting," he remembers.

Okay I'm counting this as a net positive since Scotland and Wales are getting artsied up as well.

Mr Field said he had gained more clients since moving to Bristol, including a regular customer in Taunton in Somerset.

Bristol's a lovely place.

His designs are resplendent with gold details and textures and he explained how he did not do "any of the usual tropes - I think that would drive me mad as I feel like I'm primarily an artist".

One of his most memorable 2025 creations was a giant mural inside a new arts centre at Southend High School for girls.

Oh how fun!

"That, by far, has got the most interest out of any window I've done, which shows that maybe there's a new direction for me moving forward," he told the BBC.

Forwards ever, mr.field.

With budgets tight and increasing costs, small businesses are commonly having to tighten their belts to continue trading. So why spend money on window art?

Because it's fucking nice to look at. Have you seen any fucking street in America? This would be a literal oasis in a swamp of dogwater corpo optimization and efficiency.

"There's something a little bit unexplainable about it, because it's hard to quantify and it is a bit of a luxury to have someone paint on your windows," says Ms Townsend, who charges a bespoke rate per day depending on the job.

Okay it Is a flex.

"If somebody gets it, they get it. If they don't get it, if they don't understand the reason for doing it, then they're never going to.

You're a square if you don't get it.

"Life's too short for me to try and persuade them, and there's plenty of people who do want to work with me and who do get it."

Get that bag Ms. Townsend.

In September, she was commissioned to paint in the windows of a major superstore in Chelmsford's high street to celebrate Radio 2 in the Park hosting its annual weekend at Hylands Park in the city.

Bleh. At least the advertising looks interesting.

"I was so proud of the process and the whole experience of it. I liked my design, I liked my execution and I liked the result.

Now that's some nice self-confidence I can get behind.

"The only bit I didn't like was that [the shop] decided they only wanted it up for two weeks," she laughs.

Shame that.

"It was the most amount of work for the least amount of time, but that made it slightly cooler. I think it's kind of funny."

Agreed, it's that sort of dry humor brits love.