Elaine Sidor-Hines’ pastels are a poignant probe of a lost past. Influenced by her childhood amongst family on a rural farm in Kentucky, Hines’ work explores a dreamscape of memories, one of pastoral elegance and fragility. Her subjects are birds, to which she adds great detail and movement, while the background remains abstract and dappled with light carrying with it a sense of magic. The birds are often paired and illuminated, conveying a sense of pilgrimage, of searching; not for each other, but instead searching together, as if on a heroic journey in a storybook tale. Hines’ compositions are poised and balanced and convey a sense of distance, as if one has come across the birds quite by accident in some dreamy, far off place. This distance creates a sense of timelessness that adds to the wonder of the compositions.

Elaine Sidor-Hines holds degrees in Fine Art and Design. She lives and works in Florida where she also operates a bird farm.