The works featured in this exhibition are also featured in the publication The Hill End Table: Food, Fire, Art and have been produced over nearly two decades by artists who have had a rich connection to the life, food or pottery of creative couple Lino Alvarez and Kim Deacon of La Paloma Pottery.

These artists include those who call Hill End home, participants in the Hill End Artists in Residence Program and friends of Hill End.

The Hill End Table book is a celebration of Lino Alvarez’s passion for food, ceramics and art and takes the reader on a journey from the deserts of Northern Mexico to the historic gold mining town of Hill End.

The Hill End Table contains a selection of Lino’s delicious home cooked recipes as well as essays on food, art, culture, and photographs and artworks by artists synonymous with the history and life of Hill End.

Lino Alvarez and Kim Deacon were at the forefront of artists who have established their studios in Hill End over the last 20 years.

A retreat for generations of Australian artists since the 1940s, Hill End holds a unique place in Australia’s cultural landscape.

Introduced to the village by the late Peter Wright, the couple took up a conservation lease on an 1865 wattle and daub miner’s cottage and relocated the La Paloma Pottery from Newtown to Hill End in 1997.

When artist and friend John Olsen asked Lino to recreate his favourite 50-year-old baking dish from Barcelona, Lino took up the challenge with gusto.

His La Paloma-ware range of ovenware and tableware can now be found gracing the tables in places such as Rick Stein’s Bannisters, Stefano Manfredi’s Balla, Bells at Killcare and Pretty Beach House, Frank Camorra’s Movida, Porteño, Bodega, The Grounds of Alexandria and Bathurst’s award-winning café The Hub.

The rich and rustic earthenware produced by Lino and Kim at La Paloma also add flavour and authenticity to the delicious mix of Mexican-inspired and international dishes that they prepare from their kitchens in Hill End.

Their indoor and outdoor kitchens are a meeting place for like-minded spirits – family and friends, local descendants of the original residents, and many artists who, like Lino Alvarez and Kim Deacon, continue to be inspired by the landscape, heritage and inhabitants of Hill End.

The Hill End Table: Food, Fire, Art is on exhibition until Sunday, March 26.