‘Red Vase’ is an original oil painting by Alison C. Dibble, 6 x 6 inches. It is one-of-a-kind, handmade, ready to brighten a wall or to be featured in a table-top display.

Colored glass is a favorite texture that I like to paint, and this color…a warm fuchsia pinkish red…seemed to call out for some kind of special treatment. I placed a False Angelwing seashell next to it, a perfect specimen that I had found on a beach here in Maine, and thought the chalky white texture of the shell, and the striations on the shell made a good foil for the polished glass. All this, on a background of gray corduroy fabric.

When I paint still life subjects I find this to be somewhat of a Zen practice in that there is the challenge of painting what is in front of me, but also a feeling to capture, a mood to convey in the choice and arrangement of the objects, and the phenomenon of the light that falls upon them. Indeed, the painting is about light as well as form. The mood I wanted to communicate here is one of calm, contentment, and the satisfaction of just being home. A cozy, comfortable feeling, where the roar of the city has faded away to peace and quiet.