Halloween Art Sale

First of all, let me mention (because I know you like sales!) that I have 10% off my Halloween art and prints in my shop. If you like a more subtle effect in your Halloween decorations, with cute rather than scary, you’ll like it. It’s especially for my blog readers, but I’m going to make you read about Halloween before I tell you how to get the discount. You could always skip to the end, though. I hope you won’t. You’ll see my art and prints as you read…

Halloween decorations are kind of a new thing, aren’t they? Back when I was a child, people only went to town on the spider’s webs, pumpkins and skeletons if they were having a party, as far as I remember, although lanterns have always been used. Pumpkins weren’t the original vegetable to be carved. That came from the USA. I and my mother had swede lanterns when we were children. My grandfather carved one for me. I still remember the scent of it: warm, sweet and …vegetably. Turnips were the traditional lanterns and were lit to keep away evil entities at Halloween. 

I read an article once in which a journalist said we should do away with Halloween because it’s an imported American thing and just celebrate Guy Fawkes as that’s the older tradition. He obviously didn’t do his research! The Gunpowder Plot happened in 1605. Halloween, also known as Samhain in Irish, goes back at least two thousand years here in the UK.

The native British, who we call the Celts (and a people I’m very interested in, along with their art), celebrated Samhain as the end of the year, the end of harvest, the beginning of the dark half of the year when the sun’s power weakened and as a time to honour the ancestors. It was also a time when the veil between our world and the Otherworld became very thin. Beings of both realms could step through with ease.

It was celebrated right up to modern times, as I mentioned with the lanterns and British migrants who went to live in the USA took the traditions with them. Those traditions evolved there and were imported back to us as we have it today. I prefer the older version, all about the seasons, connecting with the earth…

Black cats were seen as lucky here, by the way, particularly in Wales. It was good luck for a black cat to cross your path. 

So, my Halloween/Samhain artwork includes a black cat, pumpkins and a tabby cat in her witch’s hat (because witches’ cats are not all necessarily black). The Bat and the Hat is an original watercolour. The Cat and the Hat, The Cat and the Pumpkin and The Pumpkin are all prints.   

You can get 10% off these by typing HALLOWEEN2 into the box at checkout in my shop: RustyandBoots

Or you can use this link: https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/RustyandBoots?coupon=HALLOWEEN2

The offer runs until 31^st October, but please bear in mind that if you order late, it may not arrive until after Halloween. If you like cats and witchy things, though, they might suit your walls all year round. There’s also free shipping to the UK! 

I really hope you like my painting and prints as much as I do. They’ve been getting a lot of love on social media, which you can find me on here:

Instagram: @rusty_and_boots

Twitter: @RustyandBoots

Facebook: @RustyandBoots