<p>A painting of two crows and a tulip, by Patricia Clark-Finley. Submitted photo</p>

SEASIDE – What happens when an artist is paired with her company – a vineyard – and then is asked to show the personal relationship between works of art and a winery business?

Visitors to Fairweather House and Garden can find out starting Aug. 21, with a new exhibit, “Swan Hotel,” encaustic paintings by Patricia Clark-Finley. The gallery is located at 612 Broadway in the historic Gilbert District of downtown Seaside. There will be an open house from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 25, with Clark-Finley in attendance. Healthy snacks will be served, along with samples of wine from the artist’s vineyard.

“Swan Hotel” is a series of art that has became the branding model for a vineyard and a winery; the signature pieces from the artist’s portfolio are familiar to wine-lovers and customers of Pike Place Market Cellar Winery and Mount Baker Vineyards. The series is inspired by the marvelous birds of the Columbia-Pacific region, and the people who dare to live on a narrow strip of dunes pressed between the Pacific Ocean, Willapa Bay and the Columbia River.

Clark-Finley studied at the University of Washington and University of California, Berkeley, and holds a BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute. She also spent time at the Carl Jung Institute, the San Francisco Center for the Book and Crown Point Press.

Her degree is in multimedia art, so she has worked in a lot of different mediums, mostly expressing the imaginative world. Her art is processed as a moment in time through the lens of mythology, belief systems, narrative and personal experience. As an artist, her goal is to create a portal to that world, using the area’s euphoric light, drama, metaphor and humor to capture her imagination.

Clark-Finley works from her studio in Ocean Park, Wash. She has had solo and group shows in San Francisco and Scottsdale, Ariz., and has been included in many juried regional and national exhibitions. Signature pieces appear on labels for the Finleys’ winery and Mount Baker Vineyards. She does most of the graphics for the winery and has brought it from a cozy spot in the foothills to become an established player in the industry.

Clark-Finley had this to say: “Some places, I had been and thought: this is nice,’ but this place, I came to and thought I am not leaving.'”

“I was sure about my path in life when my mother took me to New York as an adolescent and showed me all the museums there. At the UW, there were some good teachers in the art department, who gave me confidence and courage. I moved to San Francisco where the art world rocked and fed off the other disciplines around the Bay Area with an intensity that can only come from a big city. I finished my degree at the San Francisco Art Institute, and also spent time at the Carl Jung Institute, the San Francisco Center for the Book, Crown Point Press, and UC Berkeley.

“Randy Finley and I were college sweethearts who renewed our old flame after we had both had other lives and children. Randy had this winery in Washington. We finally married and I bought a beach house for my art practice.”

Clark-Finley has been working with encaustic since about 2002. “I am intrigued by the intense color, high luminosity and textural qualities of wax,” she said, “as well as its history as an art form.” Showing at Fairweather is a group of large format drawings, encaustics and prints from the series “Swan Hotel.”

For more information, go to www.fairweatherhouseandgarden.com