PURPLEMAN, the York charity fundraiser and street performance artist, will fly out on his second Syria Toy Mission tomorrow.

This evening, from 6pm to 7.30pm, he will bid farewell to York for his Christmas journey by launching Pyramid Gallery's exhibition of postcard prints of pictures drawn and painted by Syrian children, who now live near the border on the Turkish side in camps and villages.

"While preparing the online fundraising campaign for Purpleman's next toy mission to the 'Syrian area', war children and orphans sent me amazing paintings and drawings," he said. "There are more than 70 moving, uplifting and disturbing reflections of their hearts and minds. Amazing stuff."

Purpleman, who cycled off into the sunset after his last ever stand amid the Christmas shopping multitude in Stonegate last Saturday, assembled the exhibition by liaising with his Syrian contact, Aladdin.

"I asked if he could send pictures by the children of what they were thinking about; what their hopes for the future were; the difference between their life before and their life now," he said.

Guns are prominent in several of the pictures. "There's a particularly striking one that shows a boy in Europe with his arms in the air excitedly expecting a gift, while a Syrian boy has his arms in the air, expecting a bomb," says Purpleman. "All of the children have lost members of their family and have been witness to the horrors of the Syrian war, and guns are everywhere in their minds, but there's still optimism in some of the pictures.

"The children are aged seven to 15, and if they grow up with these images as a child, what are they going to behave like as adults, because if all they know is war, their first thought will be war? If their thoughts are negative, negative results will follow.

"Which is why Purpleman taking a purple van with soft toys there is like a weapon without bullets; last time I went, as soon as they saw the joy brought about by the soft toys, those carrying weapons dropped them. When someone turns up dressed in purple with toys, there's something positive to associate with."

All donations for acquiring pictures at the Postcards From Syria exhibition will go towards buying toys for the children, under the indiegogo.com/projects/ scheme to gather as many as 1,000 toys for 1,000 children by Christmas.

The next aim will be to create a Purple school with the goal of opening by next March. "We already have people interested in teaching there, including interest from art teachers," said Purpleman.

Purpleman will spend ten days over Christmas on the Syrian/Turkish border with the children. "I'll be hosting a Christmas Day party dressed as Purple Santa, because Father Christmas crosses the political and religious divide, but I won't have a beard as it's difficult to apply make-up."