The Story of Saffron Fields Art
As you turn off of Laughlin Road and feel that familiar crunch of gravel beneath your tires, one of the first things you may notice is the pair of people standing on the crest overlooking the tasting room koi pond. But wait, wasn’t that same couple standing in that exact same location on your last visit?
Indeed they were. The two are frozen in time, and in clay. They are the first indication that along with your quintessential wine experience, you are about to be embraced by the world-class art and architecture that makes the Saffron Fields tasting room a must-stop destination for those whose taste spans both an appreciation of fine wine and art.
The pair in question are the work of celebrated Northwest ceramicist Katy Mcfadden. Katy’s large-format ceramic sculptures often take on human form and grace many a public and private garden, their earthy glazes melding effortlessly into surrounding grasses, lavender or flowering native plants.
As you proceed up the drive and turn left towards the tasting room, you may next notice the large gong created by another northwest sculptor, Phil Seder. Poised amid the plantings of the traffic island at the parking entrance, this remarkable piece showcases Phil’s trademark compositional blending of wood and metal. The large crossed pieces that support the hanging gong are fashioned from the same reclaimed Laughlin Dairy Barn wood that was used to build the tasting room itself.
As you enter the tasting room, you are introduced to a series of museum-class sculptures, paintings and art installations. While the entire catalog of available work in and surrounding the tasting room is too long to cover in this brief newsletter article, we’d like to highlight a few that have been member favorites through the years.
Glance skyward in the Jewel Box directly opposite the tasting room entry and you will see Flower Fields, a composition in wood and metal by James Surls, one of America’s most renowned living sculptors. This piece is emblematic of Surls’ ability to combine elements that are both reflectively calming and explosively vibrant and again uses reclaimed Laughlin Dairy Barn wood.
Looking out from the Jewel Box the vista transports you across the lily pads of the Thales Pond and the occasional bullfrog eyes to another member favorite: Tale Teller by Spanish artist Juame Plensa. Plensa’s kneeling form, formerly on display at the Portland Art Museum is a contemplative work that is a delightful composition both by day and when lit at night, the garden lights throwing light and shadow on the perforated steel form.
Finally, turn back and enter the main tasting room. There, the atmosphere is livened by two ever-changing forms, the eternally scrolling flowers of Jennifer Steinkamp’s Daisy Bell and Leo Villareal’s Coded Spectrum. One can long stand trying to catch the repetition in Steinkamp’s flowers. Fun fact: they are all based on poisonous plants.
Villareal’s installation is based on an ever-changing series of colored bars responding to a complex custom algorithm. Villareal is another international arts icon who rose to fame through large public installations such as San Francisco’s Bay Lights and London’s Illuminated River.
There’s more and we could go on forever. But you’re here to drink wine, right? So belly up to the bar, then, glass in hand, peruse the incredible array of offerings that grace the walls, atriums and gardens of our wonderful tasting room-cum-curated art museum.
