Blue Rain Gallery Santa Fe celebrates Halloween in all its permutations this year with a thought-provoking collection of new work by figurative painter Robin Jones on October 31, 2025. This new show is titled “Nos Galan Gaeaf,” which is the Welsh name for the night preceding November 1, the first day of winter in Wales. As with Halloween and Day of the Dead celebrations around the world, in Wales it’s a time when it is believed that the veil between life and death is at its thinnest and spirits roam freely about the land.
Well-known for her evocative musings on the natural world, environmental issues, and the interconnectedness of all living things, Jones takes us on a magical journey through a spirit-filled world via portraits of pre-adolescent and teenage girls that reveal some delightfully contrasting concepts: youth as both innocent and wise, animism/spirituality versus religion, timelessness amid the linear progression of days, years, centuries. Using an autumnal palette that reflects both the season and the Celtic coloring of her young subjects, Jones strikes a contemplative tone as she shows us a variety of scenes in Wales, Scotland, and Celtic France (Brittany), each of them portraying young girls sharing space with animals, elements of nature, and human-built structures.
“The inspiration behind this body of work began with a deep dive into my own ancestry, including the spiritual and cultural aspects of the Celtic lands of Wales, Ireland, Scotland and Brittany,” Jones says. “The animistic aspect of Celtic pagan spirituality, where all things have spirit, is something that has spoken deeply to me and which I practice. In these paintings I’ve included ideas/energy/inspiration taken from animism, as well as structural elements from the specific Celtic lands, landscapes, and non-human beings cohabitating with humans.”
The painting But All They Say is One Word, and That One Word is “Live” refers to Tennessee Williams’ play Orpheus Descending and depicts a young girl encircled by dragonflies as she stands in front of louvered shutters. In many cultures, dragonflies symbolize transformation, change, and adaptability and are seen as messengers from the spirit world, and the girl seems poised to receive the messages.
In Disruptor, set in Brittany, a young woman with wind-tossed hair gazes out at us with an expression that is fierce, confident, and determined, while a sheep looks calmly over her shoulder and the sun’s golden glow peeks over the rooftop of the house behind her. There’s a hint of defiance in the subject’s expression, enigmatic and secret.
Another painting, The Thin Veil, presents a girl dressed in an oversized shirt beside a stone bridge while birds flap animatedly around her. Her casual attire can be seen as just that, or as a kind of robe, as if she were both contemporary and otherworldly at the same time, as are the birds.
The show will run from October 31 to November 11, 2025, with an artist reception on October 31 from 5 to 7 p.m.
