Pueblo Pottery: The Portfolio of Madeline E. Naranjo
Madeline E. Naranjo is a ceramic artist based in Santa Clara, New Mexico. In her practice, Madeline creates works in the Pueblo pottery style, building up a variety of vessels by hand-shaping and carving clay, before firing and painting.
The artist’s finished pottery works are beautifully smooth and shiny. Each vessel has a strong presence, and the artist’s hand-carved detailing and monochromatic paints and glazes lend to a very cohesive style overall. Given that each pot is a single colour, it’s interesting to see how Madeline uses smooth versus matte finishing to lend variety of hierarchy to the shapes.
The artist’s portfolio includes images from the process of producing a pot, giving viewers a fascinating look inside Madeline’s practice. These process photos also reveal just how painstaking the making of Pueblo pottery is, lending a sense of gravity to this collection of works.