Little Shop of Horrors

from The Gabber: October 29, 2020

by thegabber

It's Creepy and It's Spooky

**Jamie Spoth, 4, made bold strokes in a jungle theme in honor of the Florida Panther at Let It Be Ice Cream.**
Shelly Wilson

**Zak, 8, and Kaci Nelson, 11, set up at More Bazaar with their designs, creating sketches of their plans beforehand.**
Shelly Wilson

**Tyler Scott-Kelly, 8, painted a motif featuring what could be a Gulfport gecko, "By Day & By Night".**
Shelly Wilson

**Twins Paxton, left, and Jaxon Pollar, 7, made it a family affair with brother Brayden, 2, and his cookie.**
Shelly Wilson

The Gabber’s first window painting competition for kids, Halloweendows, sponsored by the City of Gulfport, made spooky scenes out of shops up and down Gulfport Boulevard on Saturday, October 24. Participants ranging from 2 to 11 picked up paints and headed to a designated window to share their scary and not-so-scary designs.

Keri Nelson brought her daughter Kaci and son Zak to paint, adding that she had done a similar thing when in Connecticut when she was a kid but, considering the weather, they painted inside the shops.

“It was super cool,” she said. Her kids seemed to agree, bringing sketches from home to aid their designs.

“The first thing that came to mind when she told me about it was Jack Skellington,” said Kaci, 11, who had sketched several versions of the “Nightmare Before Christmas” character. Others took a classic approach. Jax Pollard, 8, who painted with his brothers Paxton and Brayden, created a night scene, with a witch flying among the stars.

“I thought of it because I usually see pictures like that,” he said, while Ella Belvedere-Winogradsky went with a touch of realism, painting a mountain in California. “I think it’s in Death Valley,” she said as she began to paint, “but there’s gonna be ghosts.”