Vase (Popocatzin) (2025) Original Oil Painting by Ben Stephenson

Vase (Popocatzin) takes its name from the Nahuatl word meaning “the one who smokes.” Inspired by pre-Hispanic censers and ritual vessels, the painting reimagines an ancient form as a turquoise-green vase that exhales a delicate plume of smoke. The carved serpent face on the vessel suggests both ferocity and vitality, transforming the object into a living being that breathes, speaks, or offers its spirit.

In Mesoamerican cosmologies, smoke was a bridge between the human and divine -a way for prayers, offerings, and life force to ascend. Through vivid colour and expressive brushwork, Stephenson animates this connection, presenting Popocatzin as both artifact and apparition: a vessel of transformation where the past continues to breathe into the present.

Materials used:

Oil paint on canvas

Details:

• Oil painting on Canvas
• One of a kind artwork
• Size: 27 x 40 x 0.2cm (unframed) / 25 x 38cm (actual image size)
• Signed on the back
• Style: Unspecified
• Subject: Still life