Description

The Light Shines On Trivet by P. Buckley Moss

Introduction

The Light Shines On Trivet by P. Buckley Moss brings a historic Virginia Chesapeake landmark into the home through a practical piece of decorative art. The image features New Point Comfort Lighthouse in Mathews County, Virginia, standing above calm blue-green water beneath a softly atmospheric sky.

This six-inch-square ceramic trivet is an open-edition gift item with cork backing. The supplied gallery information states that these decorative trivets are custom-made by hand at the Mathews, Virginia Distribution Center, offering collectors a way to enjoy Moss imagery in kitchens, dining areas, or smaller spaces where framed artwork may not be practical.

Canada Goose Gallery’s approved inventory verifies Product ID 75721, a current price of $25, and the classifications Ceramic / Lighthouse / Nature / Places / One Trivet / Open Edition.

Story Behind the Artwork

Moss places New Point Comfort Lighthouse almost directly at the center of the composition. Its pale tower rises vertically from a low rocky island, surrounded by the horizontal calm of water and sky.

Tall golden grasses cross the foreground, introducing movement and depth. Above, loosely rendered birds circle the tower, while a muted band of peach and rose warms the distant horizon.

The lighthouse’s reflection extends downward into the water, reinforcing the vertical form without making the scene rigid. Moss softens the historic structure through muted blues, grays, greens, creams, and ochres, allowing the dark lantern room at the top to remain the strongest architectural detail.

Story Behind New Point Comfort Lighthouse

New Point Comfort has guided mariners at the entrance to Mobjack Bay for more than two centuries. The Virginia Department of Historic Resources records that Congress appropriated funds for a permanent lighthouse in 1801 because the point and its surrounding shoals posed a navigation hazard.

Mathews County resident Elzy Burroughs built the lighthouse, completing it in 1805. The whitewashed sandstone tower remained in navigational service until 1963, when another light was established offshore.

The landscape around it has changed dramatically. The lighthouse originally stood at the end of a peninsula, but changing currents and erosion eventually separated it from the mainland. Today the historic tower stands on a small island and remains an unmistakable Mathews County landmark.

Symbols & Meaning

Lighthouses have a practical purpose before they have a symbolic one: they help mariners identify location and avoid hazards.

Because of that long function, lighthouses have also accumulated broader associations with guidance, vigilance, homecoming, endurance, and light in uncertain conditions. These are established cultural associations that can enrich a viewer’s response to The Light Shines On, but they should not be presented as a statement of Moss’s intended meaning.

In this work, the documented history of New Point Comfort makes the theme of endurance particularly resonant. The structure has survived changes to the shoreline severe enough to leave the once-land-based lighthouse standing on an island.

Artistic Details

The square composition is organized around a strong vertical-horizontal contrast.

The lighthouse provides the dominant vertical form, while water and distant horizon establish broad horizontal bands. Moss then disrupts that geometry with delicate foreground grasses and loosely moving birds.

The palette is coastal but restrained: blue-gray, sea green, cream, sandy ochre, muted coral, and charcoal. The white lighthouse naturally becomes the brightest architectural element.

Because the trivet is only six inches square, the composition remains readable at a small scale. The tower is immediately identifiable, while details such as grasses, birds, shoreline, reflection, and atmospheric color reward a closer look.

Featured Master Collections

Primary Master Collection: Landmarks & Historic Places

New Point Comfort Lighthouse is a documented historic Virginia landmark listed in both the Virginia Landmarks Register and National Register of Historic Places.

Supporting Master Collection: Along the Water

Water is fundamental to both the image and the lighthouse’s actual purpose as a maritime navigational landmark.

Supporting Master Collection: Place & Memory

The Mathews County location gives this work particular relevance to Chesapeake Bay residents, Virginia travelers, boaters, and collectors with personal connections to the Middle Peninsula.

Decorating Ideas

At six inches square, The Light Shines On Trivet is particularly useful in spaces where conventional framed artwork may be difficult to display.

Use it on a kitchen counter, dining table, sideboard, coffee station, desk, shelf, bookcase, coastal display, or small accent table. Its blue-green palette works naturally with coastal, traditional, cottage, and collected interiors.

The cork backing also makes the piece practical for tabletop use while allowing collectors to treat it as decorative art when not in service.

Gift Ideas

This trivet is particularly well suited to lighthouse enthusiasts, Virginia families, Chesapeake Bay travelers, boaters, Mathews County residents, coastal-home owners, and P. Buckley Moss collectors.

It can work as a housewarming, hostess, birthday, retirement, boating, coastal-wedding, or Virginia-themed gift—especially when a full-size print is not the right scale or price point.

About the Edition

Artist: P. Buckley Moss
Title: The Light Shines On Trivet
Year: 2022 — supplied
Format: Decorative ceramic trivet
Size: 6 x 6 inches — supplied
Backing: Cork — supplied
Edition type: Open Edition
Product ID: 75721
Current CGG price: $25
Inventory subjects: Lighthouse / Nature / Places
Production: Supplied as custom-made by hand at the Mathews, Virginia Distribution Center
Condition: New, Mint Condition

🎨 Fun Fact:

New Point Comfort Lighthouse did not originally stand on an island. When the sandstone tower was completed in 1805, it stood at the end of the New Point Comfort peninsula at the entrance to Mobjack Bay. Over time, changing currents and erosion cut the lighthouse off from the mainland, leaving the historic tower isolated on a tiny island. That means the water now surrounding this familiar Mathews County landmark tells a second story beyond navigation: the coastline itself has changed around a structure that has remained standing for more than two centuries.

---

🖼️ Collector’s Insight:

The Light Shines On Trivet is especially meaningful as a place-based Moss collectible because its subject and production share a Mathews County connection: the image depicts New Point Comfort Lighthouse, while the supplied gallery record identifies the trivet as handmade at the Mathews, Virginia Distribution Center. Visually, Moss makes the lighthouse monumental despite the compact six-inch format, centering its pale tower between horizontal bands of water and sky while foreground grasses and circling birds keep the composition light and atmospheric. For collectors of Moss’s Virginia and Chesapeake subjects, it offers a functional way to bring a documented local landmark into everyday living spaces.

Why Buy from Canada Goose Gallery

Canada Goose Gallery’s approved inventory verifies The Light Shines On Trivet as Product ID 75721, currently $25, with classifications including Ceramic, Lighthouse, Nature, Places, One Trivet, and Open Edition. The supplied product record further identifies it as a six-inch-square, cork-backed decorative trivet custom-made by hand at the Mathews, Virginia Distribution Center.

Continue Exploring

Collectors interested in the lighthouse imagery can continue with related Moss coastal and maritime subjects and additional Trivets:

• The Light Shines On Trivet
• Winter Bliss Trivet
• Quiet Marsh Trivet
• Where the Wild Rose Grows Trivet
• Shadows of Pink Trivet
• Promise of Spring Ceramic Trivet

The approved CGG reference also identifies a separate fine-art work as The Light Shines On – Lighthouse Print.

• The Lighthouse
• Currituck Artist Proof
• Dawn at the Cape
• Florida Winter
• Hatteras
• Life on the Chesapeake
• Lighthouse Keeper at Thomas Point
• Morning at Boca Grande Light
• North Carolina Lighthouse Set
• Michigan Lighthouse Set
• Ocracoke
• Rock Island Light
• The Beacon
• The Lighthouse Port Ontario

Verified ornament examples:

• Life on the Chesapeake Ornament
• Bodie Lighthouse Ornament
• Cape Hatteras Lighthouse
• Life on the Chesapeake Ornament
• Sanibel Light Ornament

Suggested Categories & Subject:

• P. Buckley Moss Gift Items
• P. Buckley Moss Ornament Collection
• The Collections Hub
• Trivets
• Lighthouse
• Virginia
• Coastal

---

“A light that outlasted the shoreline.”