This post, “Afterlife Communication: A Portrait for Robin,” is written in honor of Robin Gibb’s 13-year death anniversary on May 20, 2025. Recognizing the death anniversaries of our deceased loved ones is a caring way of showing them we always carry memories of them in our hearts.

Death Anniversaries: Honoring the Deceased

There are many ways to honor our loved ones on their death anniversary. Some may choose to write a letter, a poem, or a song. Others will visit their final resting place as I did for Robin in May 2024. Donating to a favorite charity of our loved one is another way to generate good karma for them and bless their memory.

This year, to honor his death anniversary, I drew a portrait for Robin out of pencil. It is my intention to offer it to him as a spiritual gift through this website.

I am inexperienced when it comes to drawing portraits, so I did my best. I have had a couple of drawing classes over the years, a long time ago, but I have not drawn very much for years.

Recently, I have been watching the television series, “Portrait Artist of the Year.” I absolutely love seeing the talent of the artists and amazed at what they can create in the four hours allotted for them.

Each episode features both amateur and professional portrait artists who paint famous sitters. In each episode, there is a winner chosen by three judges. The winner from each episode goes on to compete in the semi-finals. Three are chosen for the finals and then one final artist wins a £10,000 commission to paint another famous sitter. Their final piece is displayed in a respected museum located in the United Kingdom.

While I was watching the different episodes, I kept feeling a stronger and stronger desire to see if I could draw Robin. So, this show really inspired me. Inspiring people to be creative is one of the main benefits of shows like this. I find it very relaxing, healing, and therapeutic to watch. I have a passion for the arts and design in general, whether it’s painting, sculpting, music, pottery, ballet, writing, dancing, acting, or poetry. They make life beautiful and is one of my favorite things about life on earth.

Now that I’ve drawn again, I have to say it felt a little anxiety-provoking at first. Gradually, I felt the therapeutic effects of creating. Drawing Robin was something building up inside of me and doing it felt like finally getting something off my chest. I feel vulnerable sharing the drawing, but it comes from my heart. Almost all people feel vulnerable sharing their creations, but it’s something you just have to work through. Robin liked portraiture and I’m sure he would appreciate the effort. He was featured on Sky Arts, “A Brush with Fame,” and painted by John Myatt in Van Gogh style.

Here is my portrait for Robin (© Christina Samuels, 2025):

I used this photo as my guide:

This photo is in the book, Bee Gees: The Authorized Biography by Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb as told to David Leaf.

I feel like I captured a younger version of Robin, not necessarily reflected in the photo I used as my guide. I plan to draw other portraits using other photographs as my guide. With more practice, I hope to improve over time. Being good at art, such as drawing or writing, is not necessarily about talent, but about how much effort one is willing to put into the craft to get better at it.

The Power of Portraiture: Robin’s Presence

While I was drawing Robin, I had some interesting experiences. It was a very close, warm, and intimate activity to draw his portrait. I drew it over the course of several days, studying YouTube videos by Silvie Mahdal along the way. I highly recommend her videos if you are interested in learning to draw or draw better because they helped me immensely.

On several occasions, especially after drawing his eyes, I could really see and feel his presence appearing before me on the page. As I drew, I found myself talking to his spirit, saying things like, “I see you, Robin.” I felt a strong sense of his energy with me, which inspired me to continue.  When I say I felt his presence, I mean it felt like he was there with me.

These experiences reminded me of a couple of books I have read over the years about how when we focus intently on a deceased loved one, we draw their presence to us.

Here is an excerpt from Angels and Other Beings of Light by Martin F. Luthke and Linda Stein-Luthke explaining this:

Each time you think of the one who has departed you call this being back to you. As with all the beings of Light, all you need do is think of a disembodied being of Light, and he or she is drawn to you, whether you wish to consciously acknowledge such or not. These beings will feel free to openly and easily respond to this connection with you, provided they are also feeling drawn to you. (1)

Robin Gibb is a disembodied Being of Light now. Obviously, when you are drawing someone, even from a photograph, you are thinking about them. I agree and acknowledge that during this exercise of creating his portrait, I was calling his spirit back to me and I felt that very much.

I can’t prove it to you. I can’t take a screenshot of that. But I felt his presence strongly enough that it made quite an impact on me. It was a powerful experience of afterlife communication through drawing and one that was new to me since I had never drawn Robin before. Not everyone is going to want to draw their deceased loved ones. But for those of you who do, I would imagine you could have a similar experience as mine.

In The Blue Island by W.T and Estelle Stead, another meaningful example of how the deceased are drawn to the living when we dwell on them in thought is given. The bold is mine:

In concentrating the mind on any one spirit person, you are sending out real, live, active forces. These forces pass through the air in precisely the same way as electric waves do, and they never miss their mark. You concentrate on Mr. A. in the spirit world, and immediately Mr. A. is conscious of a force coming to him. In this land we are much more sensitive than whilst on earth, and when thoughts are directed to us by people on your side, we have a direct call from those currents of thought thus generated, and we are practically always able to come in close contact with the person who is thinking of us; when near and acclimatized to his conditions we can impress thoughts and ideas upon his mind. He will seldom accept them for what they are, but will think they are his own normal thoughts or something of an hallucination.

 

Nevertheless, if frequent opportunity is given he will be startled at the amount of information he can record. This applies to everyone, not merely to the believer in these subjects. Anyone who sits for a moment and allows his mind to dwell on some dear one who has “died” will actually draw the spirit of that person to himself. He may be conscious or unconscious of the presence, but the presence is there. If people on earth realized the result of their thoughts upon those to whom they refer, they would be very much more careful in giving their mind free play. There are so many thoughts possible, and all of them are registered here; many of them affect the people they concern, but all of them affect the people from whom they emanate. (2)

I take this as additional confirmation that what I experienced while drawing Robin was truly real. It is worth keeping in mind just how aware the deceased are of the energy we, the living, direct towards them.

Synchronicity: “Portrait of Louise” and my Vines

I would like to share a synchronicity story that gave me that old familiar feeling of closeness and alignment with Robin’s (and Maurice’s) spirit. Even though my connection is primarily with Robin, I include Maurice too because I think it would be rude not to since this is his song too.

On May 13, 2025, while I was in the process of getting organized to write this post, I decided to look up the lyrics for a Bee Gees’ song I found out about a few days before called, “Portrait of Louise.” It was released in 1970. I discovered this song I had never heard of while researching any connection Robin had to portraits.

I couldn’t understand the lyrics in the particular video I found because of the quality of the recording, so that prompted me to search for the words.

The first verse stood out to me:

Summers come and summers go
But I need the rain
All your vines will overgrow
And winds will blow insane

Well, that might not seem that meaningful at first glance. But it just so happens that several hours earlier on that very same day that I read these lyrics for the first time, I bought some stakes and clips to support my overgrown cucumber plant! I’m growing it in a container and the vines are taking over much more than I realized it would since I never grew cucumber plants before. It was also raining all day on this same day. It was not very windy, but I still feel like I read the lyrics on the right day at the right time to connect with Robin and Maurice’s Bee Gee energy.

Yes, my vines will overgrow, Robin and Maurice! How did you know? Because it truly felt like they knew. The deceased can observe us and hear us with senses that far exceed physical senses and are aware of a lot more than the living give them credit for. Perhaps deceased singers can let us know what they know about us through their lyrics.

This type of synchronicity gives the feeling of sacred togetherness, alignment, and the feeling of being guided and watched over so that these different activities could coalesce into oneness. Matching and mirroring in this manner is one way the living and the deceased can stay connected. It was very precious for my viny cucumber plant to match the lyrics of this song so precisely. You can see it in the photo above in the bottom right corner.

Are you paying attention to your synchronicities? Please remember that this is one of the many ways our deceased loved ones reach out to us. When something to do with them aligns with one of your daily activities or hobbies, it could be a message coming through. We keep the door open to communicating with our deceased loved ones in this way when we acknowledge and appreciate these alignments. We close the door on this type of communication if we ignore, dismiss, or minimize the significance.

Closing Prayer for Robin

God bless you Beloved Robin with Eternal Love on your 13^th year anniversary in Spirit. I, and many readers here, hope things are going well for you and that you are enjoying your life in Spirit. I pray that your Inner Light and Love grows and strengthens as you continue to do your good works for many souls. Thank you for being my spiritual partner for this blog and giving me stories to share. May Divine Love, Peace, Protection, and Grace be with you wherever your soul’s journey takes you.

And so it is.

References

1. Luthke Ph.D., Martin F.; Stein-Luthke, Linda. (2011). Angels and Other Beings of Light. eBookIt.com. Kindle Edition. Location 747 and 755.
2. Stead, W. T.; Stead, Estelle. (Originally published in 1922). The Blue Island and Other Spiritualist Writings (Life on Other Worlds Series) (pp. 44-45). Square Circles Publishing. Kindle Edition.

Love,