Steve Winstanley’s 21 years of painting Christmas murals for his children has resulted in one being donated to the Princess Elizabeth Hospital this Christmas.
Steve (pictured with his mural) said that it all started on his son’s first Christmas when he taped up some lining paper and set to work… he’s painted a different picture every year since!
‘Kidding around at Christmas’ has been painting specifically for the Princess Elizabeth Hospital (PEH) by Steve, and has been installed on Level 2 of the PEH near the entrance to the restaurant.
Steve said: “It all started on our son’s first Christmas. Even though he was only about six months old I thought it would be a good idea to paint a simple Christmas scene on our lounge wall, so I taped up some lining paper and set to work… I’ve painted a different picture every year since!
“When Luke and Georgia were toddlers and caught up in the magic of Christmas, I would paint the mural in the lounge in one night when they were asleep. They would wake up in the morning, see the painting (which I’d finished about 4am!) and run into our bedroom all excited shouting that Santa’s elves/helpers had done it… we never corrected them as it was a lot of fun keeping up the illusion. As the years went by, they would go to bed later which meant I had less time to work in, so I started painting onto some MDF boards in the shed during the day then fitting them up during the night. This worked out better as the artwork became more involved and I had more sleep!
“As they grew up and Georgia was in her mid-teens, she started helping me and now we paint them together every year. Our friends think I’m daft as every year I paint over the previous years’ work with white emulsion so we can start all over again.
“This will be my 21st year painting a mural in our lounge! I’ve donated this mural to the hospital as it gave me an excuse to get my brushes out and I think that having artwork for people to look at can be a good distraction for a while and hopefully bring a smile to someone’s face.”
