While realist portrait painter Robin Jones has always gravitated toward the arts, her dedication to painting began after a different kind of quarantine many years ago. For two weeks, Jones was trapped at home during the aftermath of Hurricane Ike while she was living in Houston. To keep herself occupied, she picked up a paintbrush and never looked back. 
Or We Can Walk Through Lightly, oil and 24k gold leaf on aluminum panel, 16 x 26"
This experience has led to a successful art career and a solo show with Blue Rain Gallery titled One Thread: Preserving What’s Precious, One Painting at a Time, taken from a speech given by Chief Seattle, a Suquamish and Duwamish chief on what he called “the web of life.” “When you talk about the web of life,” Jones says, “humans are only one part of that web. Everything is interconnected and everything we do reverberates throughout the web. This is one focus of my art, and it’s in keeping with interconnectedness.”
Going Back From Whence We Came, oil and 24k gold leaf on aluminum panel, 36 x 48"
Jones is an environmental and animal rights activist, and often marries the two in her art. “I use figurative painting as a means to express issues surrounding climate change and endangered species,” she explains. “I like to focus on young people [as my figures] because they will inherit the planet, and they’re so vocal in their climate activism.”
Jones was also a professional actor for many years, so it’s no surprise that her subject matter explores the many facets of human expression. “I’ve spent my whole life portraying human beings,” she says, “so when I began seriously painting about 12 years ago, it was always important to convey emotion and complexity in the human face.”
That You’re Part of This Place, oil and 24k gold leaf on aluminum panel, 36 x 48"
When Jones began her figurative paintings, she depicted characters from plays but her work evolved as her activism with animals and climate grew. “It seeped into my art more and more,” she adds. “Now most of what I do is environmental-related or just to showcase the beauty of the natural world or a specific species, because it’s also important to focus on the positive.”
Going Back From Whence We Came is one such example of celebrating in positivity. A young girl in a pink bathing suit faces away from the viewer with her arms outstretched, as she faces an image of a humpback whale thrusting itself upward for a deep dive. “The humpback is a success story in conservation,” says Jones. “The movement in the ’70s to save them was so successful that they’ve come back in record numbers. This is a happy painting.”
The new collection of work also incorporates a lot of gold, silver and copper leaf as seen in The Light of Knowledge, a scene of a young girl in prayer with an elephant as the background. “This is my first painting using copper leaf,” says Jones.
The Light of Knowledge, oil and copper leaf on aluminum panel, 48 x 36"
“I really like the warm, dark red. Also, elephants are endangered and some species are critically endangered. The young girl is meditating. I’m a practicing Buddhist and in Buddhism, there’s also the theme of interconnectedness of all things. That was the feeling behind this painting; interconnected, hoping and praying for the continuation of the species.”
In addition to the environmental series, Jones will also have a few pieces for the show that depict characters from plays, as she once did, but feels compelled to place women of color in positions of power. For instance, she will paint a Black woman as Henry VII, the first Tudor King.
Visit Blue Rain Gallery from October 29 through November 20 to get a glimpse of this impressive collection. —
Blue Rain Gallery
544 S. Guadalupe Street • Santa Fe, NM, 87501
(505) 954-9902 • www.blueraingallery.com
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