From sketchbook to finished painting: How Jill Jeffrey’s landscapes take shape

Where a Jill Jeffrey painting begins

For Jill Jeffrey, a painting rarely begins in the studio. It begins outside, in the landscape itself — on a coastal path, beside a loch, up on a hillside, or in a quiet field where the structure of the land, the movement of weather and the quality of light all begin to suggest a response. Long before a finished work takes its place on the wall, there is the act of looking: walking, observing, pausing and sketching. These first encounters with a place are at the heart of Jill’s practice and form the foundation of her landscape paintings.

Jill’s paintings are rooted in direct experience, but they are never simply descriptive. What matters to her is not just what a place looks like, but what it feels like to stand within it. That sensitivity to atmosphere, mood and emotional response is one of the qualities that gives her work its distinctive power.

The importance of the sketchbook

The genesis of a painting begins in Jill’s large, landscape-format sketchbook, often opened out across a double-page spread so that she can work expansively and respond to the full sweep of the scene before her. She sketches with a soft 6B pencil when she wants to achieve tone, or with a waterproof rollerball pen when the weather turns and she needs something that can withstand rain. These first drawings are often immediate and instinctive, but they capture something essential: the natural design of the land and the first emotional impact of the place.

Composition is crucial at this stage. Jill has spoken of being first attracted to the natural layout of the landscape, and then slowly adjusting and refining her response as she considers what drew her attention in the first place — whether the sense of place matters most, or whether the painting needs to communicate atmosphere, mood or a narrative in paint.

From observation to interpretation

Once back in the studio, the sketch becomes the beginning of a new stage rather than an end in itself. Jill does not simply copy what she has drawn. Instead, she returns to the subject with a painter’s eye, selecting what matters most and allowing the work to develop through memory, instinct and experimentation.

Jill has spoken of beginning with a sketchbook, then choosing a drawing that continues to hold interest. From there, she works through small roughs in colour to explore composition, tonal balance, direction of light and mood. This is where the painting starts to find its own identity. Some finished works remain close to the original scene, while others are simplified, heightened or reimagined so they feel more alive and emotionally complete.

How colour changed Jill's work

One of the most significant developments in Jill Jeffrey’s painting came when she studied with John Blockley. Until then, she had worked with a much more restricted palette, but his encouragement led her towards brighter, more layered colour. Jill has described the moment vividly: after being handed an emerald green pastel and asked to try it over a subdued painted field, she realised how powerfully colour could lift and transform a painting. That discovery changed her approach. From that point on, she began enriching her watercolour paintings with pastel, gradually learning how the two could work together to create greater vibrancy and depth.

This layered approach remains central to her work. Jill has explained that if she wants something especially vibrant, she may establish it first in watercolour and then work pastel over the top, allowing the under-colour to filter through and activate the surface. It is this relationship between the painting underneath and the pastel above that gives many of her works their luminous, textured quality.

Materials, surface and mark-making

After establishing the composition, Jill has two preferred ways of beginning a painting. Sometimes she gessos a mountboard and draws directly into the gesso to create texture before painting over it. She likes the fact that this underlying structure can still be sensed by the viewer, even once the work has developed. Alternatively, she begins with watercolour washes, usually on 200lb or 300lb hot-pressed paper, which she prefers because it allows pastel to glide on smoothly and thickly without the texture of the paper interfering.

Her initial drawing may begin with 6B pencil or black Conté, particularly if she intends to work back into the image with pastel. She mainly uses Unison pastels, but also turns to Conté in colour form, Sennelier and Daler-Rowney depending on the effect she wants. These choices are not incidental; they help her control softness, precision, texture and intensity across the surface of the painting.

Capturing mood, place and memory

Mood is at the heart of Jill Jeffrey’s work. She has said that she relies not only on her aesthetic reaction to a scene, but on the feelings it evokes. That emotional pull can shape everything from the level of detail in a painting to the degree of abstraction. In her own words, abstraction happens as she moves further from emotional contact with the subject in view. Sometimes she remains completely faithful to the feeling she brought home in the sketch; at other times, she reimagines the scene, asking what might happen if the light shifted or the colour intensified.

This is one of the reasons Jill’s paintings resonate so strongly with collectors. They do not simply record a coastline, a hillside, a cottage or a path. They communicate a lived response to landscape — its weather, its atmosphere, its emotional tone. That is what gives the finished work its sense of presence.

Examples in Jill Jeffrey’s recent work

Many of Jill’s recent paintings show this journey beautifully. A view gathered on a walk may become something more distilled and powerful in the studio, as in Above Inveralligin, Snow Edge or Roof Light. In works such as Last Time and Red Shed, buildings and weather are not simply compositional features; they become part of a larger atmosphere, shaped by memory, colour and emotional response. The finished painting still carries the structure of the original sketch, but it has been deepened through reflection and process.

This is perhaps where Jill’s work feels most alive — in that balance between direct observation and painterly freedom. The landscape gives the starting point, but the studio allows the painting to become something richer: not just a place seen, but a place understood.

Why collectors respond to Jill Jeffrey’s process

There is something deeply appealing about understanding how a painting takes shape. For collectors, it adds another layer of meaning to the finished work. A Jill Jeffrey painting is not simply an image on the wall; it is the result of time spent in the landscape, careful observation, experimentation in the studio, and the gradual transformation of experience into form.

From the first sketch made outdoors to the final adjustments of pastel and paint, each work is shaped by both observation and imagination. That combination is what gives Jill Jeffrey’s landscapes their distinctive sense of place and their lasting emotional power.