Seddon Wylde, weaver, painter and calligrapher, sits outside of her Hood River home. Her upcoming exhibit will showcase Chinese-inspired paintings of Hood River’s apple orchards, and provide visitors the opportunity to walk through her Chinese garden.
Three paintings that Seddon Wylde prepared for her art and garden show on Sept. 21. Primarily trained in realistic acrylic and oil techniques, Wylde learned Chinese calligraphy from Jiyu Yang and painting from Wang Gongyi, two Portland-based artists. A blend of watercolor and ink, Wylde expects to sell the paintings for less than $200.
A metal fountain sculpted by Seddon Wylde’s son, MacRae, resting in “The Talus Garden.” Behind is what Wylde calls “Trembling Mountain,” one of eight sections of her Chinese garden that she designed with Glin Varco, the director of horticulture at the Lan Su Chinese Garden in Portland.
Seddon Wylde, weaver, painter and calligrapher, sits outside of her Hood River home. Her upcoming exhibit will showcase Chinese-inspired paintings of Hood River’s apple orchards, and provide visitors the opportunity to walk through her Chinese garden.
HOOD RIVER — Outside Seddon Wylde’s home on Lovers Lane, you’ll find carefully curated spaces designed to evoke thought and tranquility: stone paths lined with ferns and Iris confusa, goldfish circling in a small pond, a moss-covered bench to reflect. Walk through sliding doors into her workspace, paintings of Hood River Valley’s apple orchards rest on windowsills and hang on walls, watercolor and ink, all in Chinese style.
A lifelong artist, Wylde will open her home to growers, creatives and others interested to experience her latest project, an art and garden show, on Sept. 21. Wylde found inspiration for her exhibit while helping a friend tend her orchard, and in thinking about how apple trees, darkened by autumn rain, give way to white blossoms.
“When I’m working on my paintings, it’s watching their growth,” she said. “It’s sort of seeing they came from a black trunk, then change their shape, their color and give this great fruit that we all eat.”
Driven by a thirst for learning, Wylde’s career spans many mediums and places. She grew up playing in Quebec’s forests, taught herself how to weave after seeing a loom in Nantucket, Massachusetts, and graduated from Boston’s School of the Museum of Fine Arts in 1963. After 16 years of selling mainly horse-adorned blankets, Wylde helped teach autistic children art, then studied painting at L’Atelier Neo Medici, a school in France.
Three paintings that Seddon Wylde prepared for her art and garden show on Sept. 21. Primarily trained in realistic acrylic and oil techniques, Wylde learned Chinese calligraphy from Jiyu Yang and painting from Wang Gongyi, two Portland-based artists. A blend of watercolor and ink, Wylde expects to sell the paintings for less than $200.
Nathan Wilson photo
Persuaded by her daughter Ellen, the secretary of Wylde, Wind & Water, she moved to Hood River in 2011. About eight years later, Wylde connected with Glin Varco, the director of horticulture at the Lan Su Chinese Garden in Portland. Looking to break out of French realism, she then started taking classes under Wang Gongyi, an acclaimed Chinese printmaker also in Portland.
“The traditional Chinese paintings were very detailed,” said Wylde. “It’s a balance of shapes and darks and lights.” As she explained, Gongyi takes a “freer” approach than conventional Chinese artists, focusing less on minute details and encouraging happy mistakes.
Wylde spent the last year creating a dozen paintings to sell at her exhibit, and some incorporate Chinese calligraphy. They feature simple, but elegant, rows of apple trees in their phase of transition, orchards watched by Mt. Hood and bright red apples still on the branch. Outside her workspace, you can explore eight distinct sections of Wylde’s garden cultivated with Varco’s help.
“A Chinese garden is separated into spaces, and they’re each given a name,” said Wylde, like her “Wild Steps to Heaven” or “The Winged Path.” Each has a painting embodying the space and a poem too, some written by Wylde and others adapted from Chinese or American artists. Keeping with tradition, Wylde’s chrysanthemums are the only flowers blooming.
Chinese gardens also have rocks to represent mountains and water to represent streams, so Wylde installed several slabs and her son, MacRae, sculpted a metal fountain. Across the sections, different species of trees stand for the five Chinese blessings: longevity, wealth, health and composure, love of virtue and the desire for a peaceful death.
A metal fountain sculpted by Seddon Wylde’s son, MacRae, resting in “The Talus Garden.” Behind is what Wylde calls “Trembling Mountain,” one of eight sections of her Chinese garden that she designed with Glin Varco, the director of horticulture at the Lan Su Chinese Garden in Portland.
Nathan Wilson photo
“What do I want people to learn? I want them to see,” said Wylde. She hopes visitors will notice how many stones are in “The Talus Garden,” spot the heron holding a fish and the other intricacies hidden around her home.
If you want to attend Wylde’s art and garden show, drop by 10 Lovers Lane in Hood River between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. on Sept. 21. Reach out to srwweaves@gmail.com for more details.
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