"Paint The Town" Conjures Up Halloween Scenes In Newtown

NEWTOWN, PA — The Halloween season has officially arrived in Newtown.

Throughout the business district teams of volunteer painters worked their Halloween magic on Saturday transforming store windows into a palette of ghostly, fall fun as part of "Paint The Town."

It was all in preparation for the big Halloween weekend, which arrives in town on Saturday, October 29th with the borough’s annual Halloween Parade.

Throughout the day on Saturday, individuals, families and groups painted the town with pumpkins, spiders, scary skeletons, witches and some of Halloween’s scariest monsters.

At Ned’s Cigar Store, John and Jamie Rementer of Warrington, were conjuring up Halloween magic with their window painting celebrating the new movie, “Hocus Pocus.” At the center of their work are the movie’s three witches gathered around a caldron.

Just a few doors down at the Zebra-Striped Whale, Todd Loessy of Newtown was working on a series of ice cream cones featuring classic movie monsters, including Dracula, Frankenstein and the Werewolf.

“As soon as I found out I was doing the Zebra-Striped Whale, I knew I had to do ice cream cones,” he said.

Down the street at Starbucks, the Lumma and Freeman families from Newtown Township were again working their artistic magic on the windows facing Centre Avenue.

This year’s creation features a cup of joe with the image of Jack Skellington and the words, “Nightmare Before Coffee” written above in green paint.

Last year the families painted two scary hands and arms stretched across the window clutching a Starbucks Coffee.

Just around the corner, on the front windows at Starbucks, members the Stucky family decorated the two front windows - one with scenes from Charlie Brown’s “Great Pumpkin” and the other with the bride of Frankenstein with her hand clutching a cup of Starbucks Coffee and a caption reading, “Death Before Decaf.”

During this year’s "Paint the Town," more than 30 groups, families and individuals decorated windows at about 50 stores and businesses throughout the State Street business districts and beyond.

“The talent keeps getting better and better each year,” said Linda Difiore, who organizes the event with Harry Betz of the Newtown Bike Shop. “They take this very seriously.

“The excitement level on the street is very high. People really look forward to this whether they are participating or just watching,” said Difiore. “And some of the artists go all out. They produce some amazing stuff.”

Other window paintings not to be missed include a crazy looking medium at Athletica on Centre Avenue by the Carriage House Artists (Jackie Koczar and Linda Storione) and a “Stay Salty” girl on the side window at the Salt Cave by Kim Orr of Langhorne.

Winners of this year’s contest will be announced at the Newtown Halloween Parade on Oct. 29 and on the Newtown Halloween website. Prizes will be available for pick up at the Newtown Bike Shop on North State Street.