Winter Windows 2014

On Wednesday, I did my annual Winter Windows painting.  For those that don't know, the Boise Downtown Business Association organizes the Winter Windows each year.  They match artists that sign up with businesses downtown that want their windows decorated for the holidays.

This is my fifth year of painting windows (you can see the windows from the other years here: 2010, 2011a, 2011b, 2012a, 2012b, 2013).  I think this might be my last time.  Last year, I noticed that there didn't seem to be as many businesses that had their windows painted.  This year, I requested to go back to painting two businesses.  But I found out they had more artists than they had businesses sign up this year, so I got one.

Once again, I got the Idaho Trust Bank.  The second time in three years.  I feel they have some of the biggest and largest number of windows to paint.  I asked if I could have a new business since I had just done their windows two years ago, but that couldn't be worked out.

I started to sign up to paint the windows because I thought what the artists were doing with it was cool and I thought it would be fun to come up with some creative design that went with the business. Through the years, I found out that some business owners have their own ideas of what they would like style-wise and others are happy with whatever you come up with.

All artists are paid the same flat fee no matter what business you get.  If you get a business with a few small windows, then I think you are pretty lucky.  Over the years, I have started trying to be creative in the sense of how fast could I paint the windows.  Because the faster you paint, the more you actually make on a per hour basis, based on the flat fee.  The first year I probably made way less than minimum wage because of the amount of time I put into it.

That's why I was somewhat disappointed that I had been chosen to do the bank again because it would take longer to paint 18 large windows.  Also, they had their own idea of what they wanted this year so I needed to change my original design.  However, since they want their windows painted from the inside (I'm not sure why, except to maybe avoid vandalism), I was very grateful I did not have to be painting outside in 14 degree weather!

I had 9 hours put into the design work and getting templates and stamps ready before I even started painting.  It took me 6 hours to do the actual painting, which I thought was pretty good for doing it by myself.

Each year I have come up with what I think are some time savers and will share them with you in another post.  Today, I will show you the finished windows.

 Detail of one of the border designs taken from inside.

There were a total of six reindeer, three trees and all the windows had borders at the top and bottom and snowflakes.