What’s your real subject?
If you’ve been following my work recently you know it’s about birds. I’ve pictured different species and represented bird song in various ways.
Tree Swallows at Valles Caldera. © Molly Elkind 2025. 17” x 25” framed. Watercolor, acrylic, artist-made earth pigments.
Spring Chorus. © Molly Elkind 2024. 22” x 28” framed. Watercolor, spray paint, acrylic
But it’s occurred to me as I continue to work in this vein that this body of work is not really about birds.
It’s about JOY.
With each new piece, I come back to wanting to express how glimpsing that bright highlighter yellow of the goldfinch lifts my spirits—every time. How the flash of the bluebird’s brilliant blue wings takes my breath away—every time. Now that it’s spring, those colors are even brighter, and the birds’ songs sound more urgent.
Three as-yet untitled pieces about goldfinches. © Molly Elkind 2025. Each 8” x 8” x 1.5”. Watercolor, inkjet, acrylic, paper raffia; woven, stitched, collaged.
I’ve had a bunch of disparate ideas about how to convey this joy, what images, mediums and approaches to use. It’s hard to pack it all into one or even a handful of larger pieces.
It seems like the best approach is to make a group or series of these eight-inch square cradled wood panels. These small haiku-like pieces can hang on the wall or stand on a shelf or tabletop, as you see above. A collector (you?) can mix and match your own group of pieces according to what speaks to you.
Students in my classes hear often my suggestion to focus on what their big idea—or their big feeling—is about their subject. What is the one main thing they want the viewer to see and more importantly, feel, in their piece? If you are clear on this as the maker, it can help you make every other artistic decision along the way.
Stay tuned for more of these 8” x 8” panels as the summer goes on and I work toward to the Eldorado Studio Tour in September. Oh—and there may also be more, larger, wall pieces! Between blog posts you can keep up with me on Istagram: @mollyelkind.