While a photo contains certain accuracy, a painter’s hand can sometimes express a more absolute truth. Plus, a drawing or painting brings warmth to the printed page.

Patrick McFarlin is a fine art painter, but he can also be funny and whimsical, as our book What We Eat When We Eat Alone, which he also designed, amply shows. It was Patrick’s illustrations of people wrestling pots and pans and flashing open their otherwise concealed cupboards that made me say, “We have to do this book!” They have been making me smile and laugh for the past year. Many of the illustrations have been made into prints. You can see more works from Patrick McFarlin at his website and Directory of Illustration.

In Vegetable Soups from Deborah Madison’s Kitchen I made a point of using contemporary ceramics as well as folk art pottery to showcase my soups. One vessel was a lidded white porcelain container that was bright orange on the inside. It made a rustic navy bean and winter squash soup look absolutely stunning, and the lid made its presentation akin to receiving and opening a present.

Since discovering that dish, I’ve become a serious fan of Sandy’s work, whether we’re talking about six deep green bowls nestled onto their own tray, or a stack of white plates, each one unique but related, or a handsome baking dish. Many of her dishes can be seen in my forthcoming book, Seasonal Desserts from Orchard, Farm and Market. Their warm shapes and unusual forms showcase fruit and other foods beautifully, and her dishes always feel good to hold and to handle.

You can see Sandy Simon’s work at her gallery in Berkeley, California, and on line at TRAX gallery, where she also shows other functional potters.

Vicky Snyder is another New Mexican potter - my neighbor, in fact - whose dishes I use frequently. She uses the “slip and soda” method for firing and glazing her works and her trademark vessel is one with a large “duckbill” spout.

Here’s what Vicki says about her pottery.
“After twelve years of ceramic study, my creative interests remain with functional ware, vessels that are both pleasing to the eye and whimsical, that are useful but not self-conscious. And as in life itself, I am drawn to pieces that are cut and altered, then reshaped, that are purposeful while appearing imperfect. Since moving to Galisteo, a small traditional village near Santa Fe, New Mexico, I have limited my firings to wood and soda, choosing glazes and slips that reflect the pale ethereal colors of this landscape that I love. The beautiful yet random, at times directional, caress of the soda and wood ash, again reflect my own life experience: that beauty comes in unpredictable and seemingly random ways. As my interest in soda has grown, I have explored not only shapes and glazes that compliment the firing, but also surface treatments: under-glazes, surface relief, textures.”

See her work at her website.

Many people work with micaceous clay in the southwest, but I especially like those pots made by ceramicist Priscilla Hoback. Hers are uneven, sometimes decorated with a trace of horsehair from one of her horses, and they’re rounded on the base, which makes it easy to spin them on the floor of the clay oven, or horno, to turn them towards or away from the fire. Mostly Priscilla Hoback is known for her murals and other clay works of art, but she does occasionally make and sell pots for cooking. Her work can be seen at her website.

Another well-known maker of micaceous pottery is Felipe Ortega, an Apache medicine man. His pots are lustrous and elegant, but most of all, meant to be used. His studio is in Northern New Mexico, in La Madera, and he focuses mostly on bean pots. Felipe claims to be the fastest man in the West when it comes to coiling clay. His work can be seen at his website.

Laurie Smith is the photographer I’ve always worked with and many of her beautiful photographs grace my website as well as my books. She captures the feeling of her subject, whether hands at work, a dish or something growing in the garden, with natural elegance, ease and directness. Her work can be seen at her website.

Margaret Camapos, with her mother, Eremita, has a farm called Algo Nativo in New Mexico. It sits right on the banks of the Rio Grand near Dixon, on the way to Taos. In addition to growing traditional and heirloom foods that they sell in nearby farmers markets, Margaret has a cooking school called La Comida de Campos. It runs in the summer, and those who take a class harvest the food they will cook and eat. Margaret has built two adobe ovens (hornos), which house part of the meal. Food cooked in these traditional ovens tastes like nothing else, and attending a class on this beautiful farm is rare opportunity to be in the field, on the land, and in a traditional New Mexican kitchen with an outstanding teacher. Learn more at Comida de Campos.