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Puzzle: Blue Dragon by Richard Kelly

Size: 500 pieces
Dimensions: 30.48cm x 40.64cm
Artist: Richard Kelly
Producer: Ceaco, 3 Glow in the Dark Jigsaw Puzzles, # 3562-2
Notes: A dragon is a legendary creature, typically with serpentine or reptilian traits, that features in the myths of many cultures. There are two distinct cultural traditions of dragons: the European dragon, derived from European folk traditions and which is ultimately related to Greek and Middle Eastern mythologies, and the Chinese dragon, with counterparts in Japan, Korea and other East Asian countries.

The two traditions may have evolved separately, but have influenced each to a certain extent, particularly with the cross-cultural contact of recent centuries.

The word dragon entered the English language in the early 13th century from Old French dragon, which in turn comes from Latin draconem (nominative draco) meaning “huge serpent, dragon,” from the Greek word δράκων, drakon (genitive drakontos, δράκοντος) “serpent, giant seafish”, which is believed to have come from an earlier stem drak-, a stem of derkesthai, “to see clearly,” from Proto-Indo-European derk- “to see” or “the one with the (deadly) glance.” The Greek and Latin term referred to any great serpent, not necessarily mythological, and this usage was also current in English up to the 18th century. [Wiki]


Puzzle: Spellbound by Myles Pinkney

Size: 100 pieces
Dimensions: 22.86cm x 17.78cm
Artist: Myles Pinkney, 2003
Producer: Ceaco, 3 Glow in the Dark Jigsaw Puzzles, # 3562-2
Box: photo
Notes: Spellbound

The night is darkening round me,
The wild winds coldly blow;
But a tyrant spell has bound me
And I cannot, cannot go.

The giant trees are bending
Their bare boughs weighed with snow.
And the storm is fast descending,
And yet I cannot go.

Clouds beyond clouds above me,
Wastes beyond wastes below;
But nothing drear can move me;
I will not, cannot go.

[Emily Jane Bronte]

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Puzzle: Holland Tulips


Size: 300 pieces
Dimensions: 45.72cm x 35.56cm
Author: M.Thonig / H.Armstrong Roberts
Producer: Golden Guild
Notes: Tulip mania or tulipomania was a period in the Dutch Golden Age during which contract prices for bulbs of the recently introduced tulip reached extraordinarily high levels and then suddenly collapsed.

At the peak of tulip mania, in February 1637, some single tulip bulbs sold for more than 10 times the annual income of a skilled craftsman. The event was popularized in 1841 by the book Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, written by British journalist Charles Mackay. According to Mackay, at one point 12 acres of land were offered for a Semper Augustus bulb. Mackay claims that many such investors were ruined by the fall in prices, and Dutch commerce suffered a severe shock. Although Mackay’s book is a classic that is widely reprinted today, his account is sometimes contested. Some modern scholars feel that the mania was not quite as extraordinary as Mackay described. [Wiki]

Song of Vidal by Kim Wiggins


Size: 500 pieces
Dimensions: 48.26cm x 35.56cm
Artist: Kim Wiggins – Growing up in Southern New Mexico, Kim Wiggins began his art career sculpting miniatures of the wildlife around him. In 1989, Wiggins deliberately leapt from an impressionist style to the dynamic, dramatic expressionist style for which he is known today, populating his canvases with ribbons of color, bulbous clouds, anthropomorphic mountains, sinewy trees and distorted houses. [Puzzle box]
Producer: The Canadian Group, Sure-Lox
Notes: “Discovering the joys of life is the Song of the Valle Vidal. If you were the scarecrow, would you see yourself as little more than an empty shirt on a set of cross-members? Or would you see yourself as guardian of one of the most beautiful places on earth, New Mexico’s Valle Vidal? We have the choice to be stewards of those around us by breathing life into them.The birds on the scarecrow sing a symphony of the inner beauty found in each of us. The flowers are life springing up around us as we reach out to others. In knowing your purpose in life, you really do come to life.”  [Greenwich Workshop site]

Puzzle: Berner Oberland, Switzerland

Size: 1000 pieces
Dimensions: 51.12cm x 66.52cm
Producer: Big Ben, MB Puzzles, 2008, #04962-U24
Notes: The Bernese Oberland (Bernese Highlands) is the higher part of the canton of Bern, Switzerland, in the southern end of the canton: The area around Lake Thun and Lake Brienz, and the valleys of the Bernese Alps. [Wiki]

Beautiful photos of the region: http://www.berneroberland.be/

Puzzle: Istria, Pula, Croatia

Size: 1000 pieces
Dimensions: 51.12cm x 66.52cm
Producer: Big Ben, MB Puzzles, 2008, #04962-Z11
Notes: Pula is the largest city in Istria County, Croatia, situated at the southern tip of the Istria peninsula. Like the rest of the region, it is known for its mild climate, smooth sea, and unspoiled nature. The city has a long tradition of winemaking, fishing, shipbuilding, and tourism. Pula has also been Istria’s administrative center since ancient Roman times.

The Pula Arena is the name of the amphitheatre located in Pula, Croatia. The Arena is the only remaining Roman amphitheatre to have four side towers and with all three Roman architectural orders entirely preserved. It was constructed in 27 BC – 68 AD and is among the six largest surviving Roman arenas in the World. A rare example among the 200 Roman surviving amphitheatres, it is also the best preserved ancient monument in Croatia.

The amphitheatre remained in use until the 5th century, when emperor Honorius prohibited gladiatorial combats. It was not until 681 that combat between convicts, particularly those sentenced to death, and wild animals was forbidden. In the Middle Ages the interior of the Arena was used for grazing, occasional tournaments by the Knights of Malta and medieval fairs. General Auguste de Marmont, as French governor of the Illyrian Provinces, started the restoration of the arena. This was continued in 1816 by the Ticinese architect Pietro Nobile, commissioned by the emperor Francis I of Austria.

In 1932, it was adapted for theatre productions, military ceremonies and public meetings. In its present state it still seats some 5,000 spectators. [Wiki]

Puzzle: Raising the Dragon by Myles Pinkney

Size: 550 pieces
Dimensions: 61cm x 46cm
Artist: Myles Pinkney
Producer: Ceaco, Glow in the Dark series, 2004
Notes: Looking at a Myles Pinkney painting is like seeing an entire movie in a single frame. First the image catches your eye, then you notice additional nuances as you travel around- and within- each painting. It’s not unusual for someone to have a print for years, and then to suddenly see some new detail that had somehow previously escaped their detection.

Myles Pinkney’s paintings also depict a larger universe. The shape of it becomes more apparent with each new painting you see. Twisted logic, incredible detail, and a quirky sense of humor all combine to create a world of infinite impossibilities into which the viewer is drawn again and again. [Reno Goodale, Biography on the Myles Pinkney site]

Puzzle: River of Time by Michael Matherly

Size: 500 pieces
Dimensions: 45.72 x 60.96
Producer: Karmin International, 2007, The art of Michael Matherly
Artist: Michael Matherly
Notes:  The works of artist-painter Michael Ross Matherly are collected throughout the world. An Indiana native, he lives on his farm with his wife Debbie and his son Tyler, where they raise horses and enjoy trail riding along the river. They also enjoy camping on the island of their pond along with fishing. Michael’s main sources of inspiration are from the vast beauty around us that God has created.

As a young boy, Michael showed outstanding talent. The achievements he holds are evidence of his love for and dedication to his art. With a multitude of interests, he works in acrylic, always striving to call forth a freshness in his works. He spends a great deal of time researching his subjects. That is obviously reflected in the details of his paintings.

Michael is one-quarter Cherokee/Shawnee and is very proud of his american indian heritage. He is concerned about the future of our planet and its environment. He hopes that in some way his art might allow the viewer to have greater respect and a deeper appreciation for nature and all living things that are upon our Mother Earth. [Puzzle box]

Puzzle: Goals

Size: 550 pieces
Dimensions: 45.72cm x 60.96cm
Producer: NSI Innovations, Motivational Classics by Successories, Inc., #32133
Notes: 

A goal is a desired result an animal, person or a system envisions, plans and commits to achieve—a personal or organizational desired end-point in some sort of assumed development. Many people endeavor to reach goals within a finite time by setting deadlines.

It is roughly similar to purpose or aim, the anticipated result which guides reaction, or an end, which is an object, either a physical object or an abstract object, that has intrinsic value.

Efficient goal work includes recognizing and resolving all guilt, inner conflict or limiting belief that might cause one to sabotage one’s efforts. By setting clearly defined goals, one can subsequently measure and take pride in the achievement of those goals. One can see progress in what might have seemed a long, perhaps impossible, grind. [Wiki]

Puzzle: Sisters of the Red Chamber by Caroline Young

Size: 750 pieces
Dimensions: 61cm x 46cm
Producer: Ceaco, 2002, #2934-6
Artist: Caroline Young
Painting: Photo
Notes: This puzzle was a pleasure to do – with its vibrant colours, flowing lines, and moonlit night mystique.

As the evening moon glistens in the distant sky above, beautiful Cardinal Spring prepares to
become the new Imperial consort to the great Emperor of China. Her younger sister, Quest Spring, lovingly attends to her every need, knowing in her heart that the time shared will soon be but a cherished memory. (From the Chinese literary classic, “Dream of the Red Chamber”) [Puzzle box]

Puzzle: Still life with fruit and flowers by Jan Van Os, Dutch

Size: 500+ pieces
Dimensions: 89.5cm x 71.5cm
Producer: Battle Road Press
Artist: Jan Van Os, Dutch (1744-1808)
Painting: Oil on canvas, Gift of Mrs. John Harris Clay, 92.13, The J.B. Speed Art Museum, Louisville, Kentucky, ISBN 0-934967-76-8
Notes: Jan Van Os was born in the small Dutch town of Middleharnis in 1744, but spent most of his life in The Hague, Holland, where he studied with the painter Aart Schoumann. Although Van Os occasionally painted marine subjects, he built his reputation on still-life paintings like the one in the Speed’s collection. He frequently exhibited at the Society of Artists in England and sold many of his paintings to members of the English and French aristocracy. Scholars today credit Van Os with perpetuating the Dutch flower-painting tradition and the style of the leading still-life artist, Jan van Huysum (1682-1749), into the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

Still Life with Fruit and Flowers is characteristic of Van Os’s large, abundant still-lifes. In it, he depicted a variety of colorful and occasionally exotic plants and fruits in a sculpted terra-cotta vase placed on a marble ledge. Van Os employed two different techniques to render the textures of the various objects. He applied wet paint on a web underlayer and blended the colors to create the subtle variations in tone in the landscape. For the fruit, insects and water drops, however, Van Os painted over a dry underlayer to depict their crisp edges and details.

Like many Dutch artists, Van Os relied on traditional metaphors or symbols to convey meaning in his paintings. In Still Life with Flowers, Van Os contrasted images which suggested the sinful, material world with objects related to the spiritual realm of God. The cat, for example, was often associated with witches, and therefore was commonly thought of as evil or lustful. The mouse was considered an earthbound animal that relied on the material world for survival. Shown eating, as it is here, the mouse also symbolized gluttony. Other objects in the painting that allude to sin are the peaches, emblems of physical pleasure, and the melon, once thought of as a luxurious unhealthy fruit. In contrast to these negative images are objects which serve as reminders of God. The butterfly and dragonfly, for example, symbolize the resurrected soul. The three-part shape of the iris is like the three-part nature of the Trinity. The grapes and the small red currants refer to the wine of the Eucharist or Communion, and thereby symbolize the blood of Christ.

Van Os’s detailed studies of fruit and flowers in lush landscape settings made his paintings immensely popular among collectors during his lifetime, as well as among museums and collectors today.

The J.B. Art Speed Museum was founded by Hattie Bishop Speed as a memorial to her husband, James Breckinridge Speed. Since opening its doors in 1927, the J.B. Speed Art Museum has become Kentucky’s largest and most comprehensive public art collection with works by such masters as Rembrandt, Rubens, Tiepolo, Monet and Picsasso. The Museum’s permanent collection consists of over 8,000 works of art spanning 6,000 years of history from Antiquity to the present day. [Puzzle box]

Puzzle: Girl before a Mirror by Pablo Picasso

Size: 500 pieces
Dimensions: 64cm x 51.25cm
Producer: The Museum of Modern Art, New York, #9042
Painting: Girl before a Mirror, 1932
Artist: Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso, known as Pablo Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973), was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the greatest and most influential artists of the 20th century, he is widely known for co-founding the Cubist movement, the invention of constructed sculpture, the co-invention of collage, and for the wide variety of styles that he helped develop and explore. [Wiki]
Notes: 

Girl Before a Mirror shows Picasso’s young mistress Marie-Thérèse Walter, one of his favorite subjects in the early 1930s. Her white-haloed profile, rendered in a smooth lavender pink, appears serene. But it merges with a more roughly painted, frontal view of her face—a crescent, like the moon, yet intensely yellow, like the sun, and “made up” with a gilding of rouge, lipstick, and green eye-shadow. Perhaps the painting suggests both Walter’s day-self and her night-self, both her tranquillity and her vitality, but also the transition from an innocent girl to a worldly woman aware of her own sexuality.

It is also a complex variant on the traditional Vanity—the image of a woman confronting her mortality in a mirror, which reflects her as a death’s head. On the right, the mirror reflection suggests a supernatural x-ray of the girl’s soul, her future, her fate. Her face is darkened, her eyes are round and hollow, and her intensely feminine body is twisted and contorted. She seems older and more anxious. The girl reaches out to the reflection, as if trying to unite her different “selves.” The diamond-patterned wallpaper recalls the costume of the Harlequin, the comic character from the commedia dell’arte with whom Picasso often identified himself—here a silent witness to the girl’s psychic and physical transformations. [The Museum of Modern Art, MOMA Highlights]

Puzzle: The Three Little Pigs

Size: 1000 pieces
Dimensions: 49cm x 68cm
Producer: Master Pieces, #71144
Notes: 

Three Little Pigs is a fairy tale featuring anthropomorphic animals. Printed versions date back to the 1840s, but the story itself is thought to be much older. The phrases used in the story, and the various morals which can be drawn from it, have become enshrined in western culture.

The Three Little Pigs was included in The nursery rhymes of England (London and New York, c.1886), by James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps. The story in its arguably best-known form appeared in English Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs, first published in 1890 and crediting Halliwell as his source. The story begins with the title characters being sent out into the world by their mother, to “seek their fortune”. The first little pig builds a house of straw, but a wolf blows it down and the pig runs to his brother’s house. The second pig builds a house of sticks and when he sees his brother he lets him in, with the same ultimate result.

The third pig builds a house of hard bricks and when he sees his brothers he lets them in. The wolf fails to blow down the house. He then attempts to trick the pigs out of the house, but the pigs outsmart him at every turn. Finally, the wolf resolves to come down the chimney, whereupon the pigs boil a pot of water in which the wolf then lands and is cooked.

The story utilizes the literary rule of three, expressed in this case as a “contrasting three”, as the three pigs’ brick house turns out to be the only one which is adequate to withstand the wolf. [Wiki]

Puzzle: Jack and the Beanstalk

Size: 1000 pieces
Dimensions: 49cm x 68cm
Producer: Master Pieces, #71145
Notes: Jack and the Beanstalk is an English folktale. The tale is closely associated with the tale of Jack the Giant-killer, and is known under a number of versions. Benjamin Tabart’s moralized version of 1807 is the first appearance in print, but “Felix Summerly” (Henry Cole) popularized it in The Home Treasury (1842), and Joseph Jacobs rewrote it in English Fairy Tales (1890). Jacobs’s version is most commonly reprinted today and is believed to more closely adhere to the oral versions than Tabart’s, because it lacks the moralizing of that version.

In the Jacobs version of the story Jack is a young lad living with his widowed mother. Their only means of income is a cow. When this cow stops giving milk one morning, Jack is sent to the market to sell it. On the way to the market he meets an old man who offers to give him “magic” beans in exchange for the cow.

Jack takes the beans but when he arrives home without money, his mother becomes furious and throws the beans out the window and sends Jack to bed without supper.

As Jack sleeps, the beans grow into a gigantic beanstalk. Jack climbs the bean stalk and arrives in a land high up in the sky where he follows a road to a house, which is the home of an ogre. He enters the house and asks the ogre’s wife for food. She gives him food, but the ogre returns and senses that a human is nearby:

Fee-fi-fo-fum!
I smell the blood of an Englishman.
Be he live, or be he dead,
I’ll grind his bones to make my bread.

However, Jack is hidden by the ogre’s wife and overhears the ogre counting his money. Jack steals a bag of gold coins as he makes his escape down the beanstalk. Jack repeats his journey up the beanstalk two more times, each time he is helped by the increasingly suspicious wife of the ogre and narrowly escapes with one of the ogre’s treasures. The second time he steals a hen which laid golden eggs and the third time a magical harp that played by itself. This time he is almost caught by the ogre who follows him down the beanstalk. Jack calls his mother for an axe and chops the beanstalk down, killing the ogre. The end of the story has Jack and his mother living happily ever after with their new riches. [Wiki]

Puzzle: Goldilocks and the Three Bears

Goldilocks and the Three Bears, med

Size: 1000 pieces
Dimensions: 49cm x 68cm
Producer: Master Pieces, #71146
Artist: Scott Gustafson
Notes: “The Story of the Three Bears” is a fairy tale first recorded in narrative form by British author and poet Robert Southey, and first published anonymously in a volume of his writings in 1837. The same year, British writer George Nicol published a version in rhyme based upon Southey’s prose tale, with Southey approving the attempt to bring the story more exposure. Both versions tell of three bears and an old woman who trespasses upon their property.

“The Story of the Three Bears” experienced two significant changes during its early publication history. Southey’s intrusive old woman became an intrusive little girl in 1849, who was given various names referring to her hair until Goldilocks was settled upon in the early 20th century. Southey’s three bachelor bears evolved into Father, Mother, and Baby Bear over the course of several years. What was originally a fearsome oral tale became a cozy family story with only a hint of menace. [Wiki]

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Puzzle: Thatched Cottage

Size: 1000 pieces
Dimensions: 73cm x 48.5cm
Producer: The Canadian Group, Sure-Lox, Photo Gallery 10 puzzle pack, #42610-72
Notes: Once more, no location is indicated by the puzzle producer.

In modern usage, a cottage is usually a modest, often cozy dwelling, typically in a rural or semi-rural location. However there are cottage-style dwellings in cities, and in places such as Canada the term exists with no connotations of size at all. In the United Kingdom the term cottage also tends to denote rural dwellings of traditional build, although it can also be applied to dwellings of modern construction which are designed to resemble traditional ones (“mock cottages”).

In certain places (e.g. Eastern Canada, Scandinavia and Russia) the term “cottage” can refer to a vacation/summer home, often located near a body of water. However, in the USA generally this is more commonly called a “cabin”, “chalet”, or even “camp”. [Wiki]

Puzzle: Thatched Cottage

Size: 750 pieces
Dimensions: 59.7 cm x 39.4 cm
Producer:  The Canadian Group, Sure-Lox, Photo Gallery 10 puzzle pack, #42510-57
Notes: The puzzle producer has not once again indicated the location of the cottage.

Although thatch is popular in Germany, The Netherlands, Denmark, Belgium and Ireland, there are more thatched roofs in the United Kingdom than in any other European country. Good quality straw thatch can last for more than 45–50 years when applied by a skilled thatcher.

Over 250 roofs in Southern England have base coats of thatch that were applied over 500 years ago, providing direct evidence of the types of materials that were used for thatching in the medieval period.  Almost all of these roofs are thatched with wheat, rye, or a ‘maslin’ mixture of both. Medieval wheat grew to almost 1.8m tall in very poor soils and produced durable straw for the roof and grain for baking bread. [Wiki]

Puzzle: Neuschwanstein Castle

Neuschwanstein Castle 2, med

Size: 1000 pieces
Dimensions: 73cm x 48.5cm
Producer: The Canadian Group, Sure-Lox, Photo Gallery 10 puzzle pack, #40617-13
Notes: I have put together another puzzle of the Neuschwanstein Castle before, 500 pieces.

The inspiration for the construction of Neuschwanstein came from two journeys [of Ludwig II] in 1867: one in May to the reconstructed Wartburg near Eisenach, another in July to the Chateau de Pierrefonds, which Eugene Viollet-le-Duc was transforming from a ruined castle into a historistic palace.

The king saw both buildings as representatives of a romantic interpretation of the Middle Ages as well as the musical mythology of his friend Richard Wagner. Wagner’s operas Tannhauser and Lohengrin had made a lasting impression on him.

In February 1868, Ludwig’s grandfather Ludwig I died, freeing the considerable sums that were previously spent on the abdicated king’s appanage. This allowed him to start the architectural project of building a private refuge in the familiar landscape far from the capital Munich, so that he could live his idea of the Middle Ages. [Wiki]

Puzzle: Castle Mespelbrunn

Size: 750 pieces
Dimensions: 59.7 cm x 39.4 cm
Producer:  The Canadian Group, Sure-Lox, Photo Gallery 10 puzzle pack, #43550-26
Notes: Mespelbrunn Castle is a medieval moated castle on the territory of the town of Mespelbrunn, between Frankfurt and Wurzburg, built in a remote tributary valley of the Elsava valley, within the Spessart forest. One of the most visited water castles in Germany, it is frequently featured in tourist books.

In 1957 Mespelbrunn Castle was one of the locations of the German film Das Wirtshaus im Spessart (The Spessart Inn, 1958), based on a fairy tale by Wilhelm Hauff. [Wiki]

Puzzle: Madrid, Spain

Size: 500 pieces, 1 missing
Dimensions: 37 cm x 52 cm
Producer:  GPC Puzzles, Regency Collection, #1550-08
Notes: The Plaza de Cibeles is a square with a neo-classical complex of marble sculptures with fountains that has become an iconic symbol for the city of Madrid. It sits at the intersection of Calle de Alcala (running from east to west), Paseo de Recoletos (to the North) and Paseo del Prado (to the south). Plaza de Cibeles was originally named Plaza de Madrid, but in 1900, the City Council named it Plaza de Castelar, which was eventually replaced by its current name.

The most prominent of the buildings at the Plaza de Cibeles is the Cibeles Palace (formerly named Communications Palace). The cathedral-like landmark was built in 1909 by Antonio Palacios as the headquarters of the postal service. This impressive building was home to the Postal and Telegraphic Museum until 2007 when the landmark building became the Madrid City Hall. [Wiki]