For many years, I’ve known of and admired the plein air paintings by Jane McGraw-Teubner yet, shockingly, it’s only now that she is appearing as a guest on the HowToPastel blog. I’m delighted to rectify that and introduce you to Jane’s work and words. If you’re familiar with this master pastellist’s work, you’re in for a treat! And if this is your introduction to this artist, well, look out for some great wisdom coming your way!

Before I hand over the reins to Jane McGraw-Teubner, here’s a wee bit about her. 

Bio for Jane McGraw-Teubner 

Jane McGraw-Teubner is a Signature Member/Master Pastelist, Pastel Society of America (PSA) and a Master Circle Recipient, International Association of Pastel Societies (IAPS). She received her Eminent Pastelist status from IAPS in June 2022.  Jane was chosen as “Member of the Year” by the Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club in 2019. Her work is included in the book “Pure Pastel” released in 2019.

To read more about Jane McGraw Teubner and see more of her work, be sure to check out her website.

It’s over to you Jane!

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My journey with pastels began serendipitously, with a change in the schedule at my local art league many years ago. I had been taking oil painting classes at night, as I worked full time. One semester, there were no classes offered in oil, but there was one that fit my schedule – it was in pastel. 

I had never worked with pastels before, so I went out and bought a set of Rembrandts, around 24 pieces. In my naïveté, I thought I was set for life with 24 pastels! 

My first instructor was Jeff Webb. Jeff was an excellent teacher for a beginner. We worked directly from life, doing still life subjects, flowers, fruit, and other objects, such as glass, metal, and ceramics. 

We also went outside, once in 30mph winds. 

Jeff encouraged me to put my discomfort and terror at having my easel blow over, into the painting that I was holding onto for dear life. He never let us rub the pastels, a very good foundation for a beginning pastel artist. After that first class, I never went back to oils! 

Pastel fit my hectic schedule. I worked at night or weekends. I was a lazy oil painter – I would let my brushes dry out and the oils on the palette would harden. With pastel, I could leave my work for days and return to it exactly as I had left it. I had found the perfect medium for me. 

Jeff was active in the Pastel Society of America (PSA) and encouraged his students to apply to the Annual PSA show. I tried for years and kept getting rejected. Every time I got rejected, I was more determined than ever to become a better artist. Eventually, I did get accepted into the show and felt more confident to apply for signature status. Those were the days when that meant sending in three slides of your work. My goal was to get Signature status before I turned 50. I did not make that goal, but I did get that designation a short time later, and, in a few years, achieved Master Pastelist status.

The first plein air workshop I took was with Albert Handell, in Dunedin, Florida, many years ago. In that workshop, we had a limited amount of time at different locations. I never finished a painting so I took many photos of the scenes that I painted…all with a film camera! I had plans to finish the paintings in my studio when I got home. 

After developing the photos, I tried to match the photos to my paintings. The photos were so different from my paintings that I couldn’t figure out which green foliage/palm tree shot went with the corresponding work. That was my first realization that photos don’t necessarily capture what we experience in nature. 

Our eyes and brains see so much more than a camera. Colour, temperature, atmosphere, and even composition change so much when we observe from life. We have an emotional response to our subject when outdoors, with the air temperature, different seasons, discomforts, (bugs, poison ivy, wind, cold, heat, people watching us, etc.) all having an influence on us as we work.

I’ve been accepted into numerous plein air competitions, including five times to Plein Air Easton! Competition painting is a whole different sport in the art world. The tension you feel all week to produce a masterpiece is incredible. These experiences helped me develop my skills as a plein air artist. Working from life for many years, gaining knowledge on how to interpret what I see, doing hundreds of studies, has also given me the tools to interpret photos in studio with the freedom that I experience plein air painting. 

All Washed Out was done sitting in the front seat of my car during Plein Air Easton! It had started to rain just as I set up. In order to finish it, I moved into my car and painted looking through my wet windshield, resting my board on the steering wheel. The painting sold in the first few minutes of the opening of the show!

I have been teaching for a number of years, both in the studio and on location.

Most of my students work from photos during the colder months. In the warmer weather, we go outside to work. One of the first things they notice is that their photos are very different from real life. They are amazed at what can be seen on location that the camera does not capture. 

Another benefit of having them work outside, is that the paintings get done much more quickly outside than in the studio. I had one student who would take 4-5 months on one painting. When they went outside, they could finish a painting in 3 hours! Their work became freer with more accurate and interesting colour choices. There was no getting bogged down with all the unnecessary details that the camera sees and that we think must be in our work.

Painting from Life Versus Painting from a Photo

Painting from life and painting from a photo each offer different experiences and outcomes for artists. Each method has its advantages and can be chosen based on the artist’s goals, the subject matter, and the context in which they are working.

Painting from life allows artists to experience the subject in its natural environment, capturing the true colours, lighting, and details. There is a better sense of depth perception and three-dimensional qualities. We don’t experience that with photos. The painter is more engaged with the subject when experiencing the whole tactile environment. Natural lighting and atmospheric conditions can add to the mood and personal connection to the painting. 

Painting en plein air is far more challenging than painting in the studio due to changing light conditions, weather, and the need to make quick decisions.

Painting from a photo allows us to work at any time and at any pace, without being affected by changing light or weather conditions. Photos are useful for capturing fleeting moments that are impractical to paint from in life, or that we just cannot see with our eyes. Remember the short movie of the galloping horse that changed the way the Impressionists saw horses gallop? It was called The Horse in Motion, a set of photographs of a moving object created by Eadweard Muybridge in the 1870s. It changed the way people saw motion. 

Photos provide a reference that does not change, making it easier to focus on details and proportions. This aspect is good and not good at the same time. It often results in the literal translation of the landscape instead of the emotional effects of our reactions to the landscape. Too many details spoil the painting. 

We don’t have three-dimensional effects in photos, which can result in flat-looking work. Colour doesn’t have the same quality and depth as in real life. Our eyes see differently than a camera does. Artists can manipulate the photo, for instance, by cropping, adjusting colours, or combining elements from multiple photos to create a unique composition, something I do when I use photo references.

The dangers of using photos may be a detached connection, as the artist is not directly interacting with the subject. That can be overcome with many studies and experiences painting from life. Using a combination of both methods can help the artist. 

I live by the ocean and take many photos and videos. They have helped me understand the way the waves break and have added to my understanding of how the ocean behaves when painting them from life. When I paint waves in my studio, I’ll choose a frame of a video and sketch it in, then play the video to get the pure motion of the water, translating that movement into the painting.

Using a Poor Reference Photo 

In the following example, the difference between the photo and the painting is dramatic. Many times when painting from photos, I like to choose a poor quality photo. I feel it gives me more freedom to put myself into the work. 

Here, I used the knowledge gained from many hours of plein air work, resulting in a more interesting and exciting piece, than if I had used the photo reference literally. 

I went to a local marsh where I’ve painted many times. It was sunset and I did not set up my easel, just observed and took photos. As I’d painted there before, I had knowledge of what colours and temperature the grasses were, and didn’t need to depend on the photo alone. The photo is dull and uninteresting because of the brightness of the sun that is making the colours too dark and muddy. 

Digital cameras often have great difficulty with white balance (WB) — and can create the lights too light and the darks too dark. Photo editing apps help edit your photos after you’ve taken them, adjusting the warm/cool relationships. The ideal situation is to have the camera adjust to the lighting conditions when the initial photo is taken. Our eyes can only see so much in one glance but a camera sees every detail in less than a second.

The Difference Between Working En Plein Air and in the Studio 

A few weeks ago, I participated in a plein air event at a local park. Painting #1 was done at the event. #2 was done in my studio from a photo reference. 

Bridge Over Calm Waters was painted in about three hours on location. I set up in the morning and worked until about noon, and stopped when I felt the painting was finished and when the light on the bridge had changed dramatically. I took a photo of the scene.

The time of day had changed from morning to afternoon. This is what I painted in the second painting.

As you can see, the two pieces are distinct, the effect is very different in each. To me, the plein air piece is more personal, intimate, and more emotional. It seems to have a connection to the bridge. The painting done from the photo includes more unnecessary elements, has a colder temperature, and seems less personal. There’s a greater distance to the bridge which is the main attraction of the work. Both pieces have merit but I prefer the plein air one.

Even if you can’t go outside to paint, if you have health concerns, mobility issues, or just don’t want to deal with people looking at your struggles, you can always make notes regarding colour temperature and composition whenever you’re outside. 

Study the greens in your backyard. Challenge yourself to see more colours than are obvious. Compare temperature shifts. We don’t just paint with our hands, we paint with our brains. 

Jane’s Painting Process

My process of painting involves certain steps that I’ve learned throughout my career after taking many workshops with a variety of artists. 

On location, I do a few thumbnail sketches to get the composition and values. While in the studio, I edit my photo references to work on the composition. Occasionally, I’ll do a thumbnail sketch of the photo if I feel the composition needs work. Then I move objects around to get a better composition. With Pine Trees, I sketched in a rough drawing on Lux Archival sanded paper, using a pastel pencil.

I then applied a small amount of pastel, being careful not to add too much pastel. If you add too much, it fills in the tooth of the paper, a mistake many beginning students make. With a turpenoid wash, I created the underpainting, which is the foundation of the final painting.

In the next step, I start to apply some of the local colour, starting with the easiest colours, for example, the sky and the greens of the tree. I put in some lights and darks in a general massing, being conscious of the warms and cools and keeping a consistent light source, which in this case, is coming from the left.

From there I add more massing in, testing the different colours that create a lively colour scheme. I test out many colours on my surface. I’m not one of those artists who has a piece of paper on the side to check colour. I check my colour directly where I plan on using it. That way I can tell how it will react with the colours next to it.

The final stages of the painting are the most dangerous. After all the careful planning putting in the bones of the work, the painting can fall apart for any number of reasons. I approach this stage very carefully, standing back from my work far more than time spent at the easel, evaluating each stroke added. 

With pastels, you can achieve effects that are not available with other mediums. The deep, rich, pure pigments are immediate, and have a luminosity that other mediums lack. When I have a painting hanging in a gallery or show, a comment I frequently hear is… “Your work is so beautiful, it looks like an oil painting.” 

Someday I want to hear someone say… “That oil painting is so beautiful, it looks like a pastel!”

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I agree with that last sentiment from Jane!!

Wow – so much practical info and inspiration from Jane McGraw-Teubner right?! Are you ready to go out painting on location? I know I am!

We would LOVE to know your reaction to Jane’s post so be sure to leave a comment with your thoughts and questions.

Until next time,

~ Gail