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