Nancy Staub Laughlin has spent years watching the world closely. Not in a dramatic or distant way, but with the kind of attention that grows out of patience, curiosity, and a natural pull toward beauty. This season, she is featured in our Christmas Editorial Pick, a quiet acknowledgment of how her work captures light, calm, and presence in a way that feels fitting for the time of year. She is an American pastel artist and photographer with a BFA from Moore College of Art in Philadelphia, a place that shaped her early understanding of form, color, and composition. Over the years, she has shown her work throughout the east coast in galleries and museums, and her pieces have found their way into corporate and private collections. Her art has also been described by Sam Hunter, the well-known critic and historian, as “refreshingly unique.”
That phrase fits her well. Nancy’s art doesn’t sit inside a single category. She blends pastel drawing with photography, and she does it in a way that feels natural, as if the two mediums were meant to meet. Her interest in nature is not just a theme—it is the anchor of her entire visual world. She is drawn to moments that most of us overlook: the angle of reflected light on a leaf, the softness of a shadow, the quiet radiance that appears when sunlight strikes a surface at just the right second.
Her artwork The Radiance of Illumination captures this approach. It is a pastel-and-photograph piece measuring 35 x 45 inches, created as part of her ongoing study of nature’s subtleties. In this work, Nancy combines the precision of photography with the softness and texture of pastel, forming a dialogue between the real and the reimagined. She does not treat these mediums as opposites. Instead, she lets them echo each other. The photograph offers clarity, while the pastel adds atmosphere. Together, they form a moment that feels both grounded and dreamlike.
Nancy describes this piece as a continuation of her fascination with nature’s uniqueness. She pulls together elements that share similarities—light patterns, textures, shapes—yet still hold their own separate identity. Her goal is simple and clear: to have the viewer slow down and notice. To open their eyes to the phenomena she captures in these delicate intersections between the seen and the felt. She calls these moments “sheer beauty and radiance,” and in her hands, they become more than aesthetic subjects. They become small, distilled experiences.
What stands out about Nancy’s work is the way she builds an atmosphere around these experiences. Her compositions often appear constructed yet organic, balanced yet spontaneous. You can tell she has a photographer’s eye for structure and a pastel artist’s instinct for softness. Her images offer both clarity and mystery. They bring the viewer close, but not too close. There is room for interpretation. There is room to breathe.
Her studio process also reflects this duality. Photography gives her a fixed, tangible base—something to anchor the work. Pastel, on the other hand, lets her move freely, adjusting color, light, and mood. She layers and refines until the piece feels alive. It is not realism, and it is not abstraction. It is something between those worlds, something built by observing nature and then rebuilding it with intention.
Over the years, Nancy’s exhibitions have shown how consistent this pursuit has been. She is interested in illumination, in reflections, in fragile contrasts that shift throughout the day. Light plays a central role in everything she creates. It becomes the subject even when it isn’t meant to be. It becomes the structure even when the forms appear simple.
Her work invites a certain kind of quiet engagement. It does not overwhelm. It does not rely on shock or spectacle. Instead, it lets the subtle parts of nature do the talking. The viewer is asked to look, not rush. To notice the way light and texture interact. To consider how a constructed tableau can still feel natural.
That is the heart of Nancy Staub Laughlin’s art. She sees nature not as decoration but as an emotional space—one that carries memory, calm, and wonder. Her pastel-and-photograph combinations turn ordinary scenes into contemplative moments. They remind us that radiance is not rare; it is simply easy to miss.
Through her ongoing work, she continues to build a quiet, steady vision rooted in observation. She offers scenes that feel peaceful but alert, serene but awake. And in doing so, she gives the viewer something rare in today’s fast pace: a brief pause, a shift in focus, a chance to rediscover what is right in front of them but often unseen.
Nancy Staub Laughlin’s art holds that space gracefully. It is her way of honoring the natural world and inviting others to participate in its small wonders—one illuminated moment at a time.
