Tag Archives: puzzle

Puzzle: Moonlight Calm by Anthony Casay


Size: 500 pieces
Dimensions: 35cm x 48cm
Artist: Anthony Casay has been described as one of the world’s most creative contemporary painters today. It has been said that the “ocean dances” at the tip of his brush, and that the sun pulsates from his canvas. Casay depicts the colors, fragrances and shapes of the sea; its waters in turmoil–providing a spectacle of rare excitement. Each Casay wave has a personality of its own as it crests, breaks and swirls into a flood of white foam. His paintings explore some of the choicest treasures of natures’ coastal ocean cliffs, rocky shorelines and stormy coves. [Bio at AEJV site]
Producer:  Canada Games

Puzzle: Spring Concerto


Size: 500 pieces, 2 missing
Dimensions: 45.72cm x 35.56cm
Photographer: Dietrich Leis
Producer:  E&L Corporation
Notes: Dianne Dietrich Leis, photographing professionally since 1977, began her career running the family commercial studio in Phoenix. In that capacity she did weddings, portraits, and commercial assignments. She continues the family tradition of landscape and travel photography. Her photo shoots in Europe, Mexico, and Costa Rica have broadened the scope of the collection. In addition, Dianne enjoys still life photography and contributes to several craft and interior design books. [Bio at Dietrich Leis Photo site]

Puzzle: The Love Song by Norman Rockwell


Size: 1000 pieces
Dimensions: 73cm x 48.57cm
Painting: photo
Producer:  Sure-Lox
Box: photo
Artist: Norman Percevel Rockwell (February 3, 1894 – November 8, 1978) – a 20th-century American painter and illustrator. His works enjoy a broad popular appeal in the United States, where Rockwell is most famous for the cover illustrations of everyday life scenarios he created for The Saturday Evening Post magazine for more than four decades. [Wiki]
Notes: Norman Rockwell’s Love Song, which was reproduced as an illustration in the December 1926 issue of Ladies Home Journal, presents one of this popular artist’s major themes: youth contrasted with old age. A young girl listens wistfully as two elderly men play the flute and the clarinet. Leaning against the metronome is a music sheet indicating the tune’s-and the painting’s-title, “The Love Song.” Rockwell, an avid collector of antique maps, added an old map to the scene, enhancing its quaint setting. [Indianapolis Museum of Art site]

Puzzle: The Collector


Size: 1000 pieces
Dimensions: 69cm x 51cm
Artist: James C. Christensen (born September 26, 1942) is an American artist. His main body of work, mostly paintings, is heavily influenced by fantasy themes. Even his small body of religious work shows heavy fantasy influence. Christensen says his inspirations are myths, fables, fantasies, and tales of imagination. [Wiki]
Producer:  Ceaco, The Greenwich Workshop – North America’s leading fine art publisher specializing in the burgeoning medium of visual entertainment. Founded in 1972, the company’s principal products are Fine Art Edition prints and gicleé canvases―which are collectible, fine-quality reproductions of original paintings by the most sought-after, most collected group of artists painting today. [The Greenwich Workshop site]
Notes: There are at least 26 objects within the puzzle that start with each letter of the alphabet. Can you find all of them? [puzzle box]

Puzzle: Sauvignon Grapes, Napa Valley


Size: 1000 pieces
Dimensions: 73cm x 48.57cm
Producer:  Sure-Lox, Puzzlers Collection series
Notes: Cabernet Sauvignon is one of the world’s most widely recognized red wine grape varieties. It is grown in nearly every major wine producing country among a diverse spectrum of climates from Canada’s Okanagan Valley to Lebanon’s Beqaa Valley. Cabernet Sauvignon became internationally recognized through its prominence in Bordeaux wines where it is often blended with Merlot and Cabernet Franc. From France, the grape spread across Europe and to the New World where it found new homes in places like California’s Napa Valley, Australia’s Coonawarra region and Chile’s Maipo Valley. For most of the 20th century, it was the world’s most widely planted premium red wine grape until it was surpassed by Merlot in the 1990s.  [Wiki]

Napa County is a county located north of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. The word napa is of Native American derivation. Of the many explanations of the name’s origin, the most plausible seems to be that it is derived from the Patwin word “napo” meaning “house”, although local residents will often cite an urban legend that gives the translation as “you will always return”. [Wiki]

Puzzle: The Dolomites, Italy


Size: 1000 pieces
Dimensions: 51.12cm x 66.52cm
Producer:  Hasbro, Milton Bradley puzzles, Big Ben
Notes: The Dolomites are a mountain range in the Alps. They are located for the most part in the province of Belluno, the rest in the provinces of Bolzano-Bozen and Trento (all in north-eastern Italy).

The name “Dolomites” is derived from the famous French mineralogist Déodat Gratet de Dolomieu who was the first to describe the rock, dolomite, a type of carbonate rock  which is responsible for the characteristic shapes and colour of these mountains; previously they were called the “pale mountains,” and it was only in the early 19th century that the name was Gallicized. [Wiki]

Puzzle: Taste of Tuscany, Italian Lakes


Size: 500 pieces
Dimensions: 48.26cm x 35.56cm
Producer: The Canadian Group, Sure-Lox, Taste of Tuscany series
Box: photo
Notes: Tuscany (Italian: Toscana) is a region in Central Italy. The regional capital is Florence.

The most famous lakes in Italy are in what is sometimes called the Italian Lake District, in the north of the country not far from the Alps. That anglicised description is evocative of the area’s poetic and literary connections. Beloved of the romantic poets as well as later writers, statesmen and royalty, the northern Italian lakes are beautiful and atmospheric, where mountains descend to meet the lakeshore, and stately grand hotels dominate pretty lakeside towns. [Italy Heaven site]

Puzzle: Paulding, Michigan, U.S.A.


Size: 1000 pieces
Dimensions: 51.12cm x 66.52cm
Producer:  Hasbro, Milton Bradley puzzles, Big Ben
Notes: Surrounded by Ottawa National Forest land today, Paulding was once a busy sawmill town surrounded by logging activity. It still has a general store, a tavern, and a few other businesses and houses. Fishing and hunting are major pursuits today. [The Enchanted Forest site]

Puzzle: Taste of Tuscany, Café Barocco


Size: 500 pieces
Dimensions: 48.26cm x 35.56cm
Producer: The Canadian Group, Sure-Lox, Taste of Tuscany series
Box: photo
Notes: Tuscany (Italian: Toscana) is a region in Central Italy. The regional capital is Florence.

Tuscany is known for its beautiful landscapes, its rich artistic legacy and vast influence on high culture. Tuscany is widely regarded as the true birthplace of the Italian Renaissance, and has been home to some of the most influential people in the history of arts and science, such as Petrarch, Dante, Botticelli, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo Galilei, Amerigo Vespucci and Puccini. Tuscany has a unique culinary tradition, and is famous for its wines (most famous of which are Chianti, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, Morellino di Scansano and Brunello di Montalcino). Most of the frescos, sculptures and paintings in Tuscany are also held in the region’s abundant churches and cathedrals, such as Florence Cathedral, Siena Cathedral, Pisa Cathedral and the Collegiata di San Gimignano. [Wiki]

Puzzle: Beech Walk Road


Size: 1000 pieces
Dimensions: 73cm x 48.57cm
Producer: The Canadian Group, Sure-Lox, Country Roads series
Notes: Beech is a genus of ten species of deciduous trees in the family Fagaceae, native to temperate Europe, Asia and North America.

Beech wood is an excellent firewood. Some drums are made from beech, which has a tone generally considered to be between maple and birch, the two most popular drum woods. Also, beech pulp is used as the basis for manufacturing a textile fibre known as Modal. The wood is also used to make the pigment known as bistre.

Beech was a common writing material in Germanic societies before the development of paper. The Old English bōc and Old Norse bók have the primary sense of beech, but a secondary sense of book, and it is from bōc that the modern word derives. In modern day German, this connection is even more apparent, with the word for “book” being “das Buch” and “Buche” for beech tree. [Wiki]

Puzzle: Lupine Lined Road


Size: 1000 pieces
Dimensions: 73cm x 48.57cm
Producer: The Canadian Group, Sure-Lox, Country Roads series
Notes: Lupins or lupines (North America) are the members of the genus Lupinus in the legume family (Fabaceae). The genus comprises between 200 and 600 species, with major centers of diversity in South and western North America, and in the Mediterranean region and Africa.

The yellow legume seeds of lupins, commonly called lupin beans, were popular with the Romans, who spread the plant’s cultivation throughout the Roman Empire. The name ‘Lupin’ derives from the Latin word ‘lupinus’ (meaning wolf), and was given with regard to the fact that many found that the plant has a tendency to ravage the land on which it grows. The peas, which appear after the flowering period were also said to be fit only for the consumption of wolves. [Wiki]

Puzzle: Morton Arboretum Road


Size: 1000 pieces
Dimensions: 73cm x 48.57cm
Producer: The Canadian Group, Sure-Lox, Country Roads series
Location site: http://www.mortonarb.org/
Location: The Morton Arboretum, in Lisle, Illinois, covers 6.9 square kilometres and is made up of gardens of various plant types and collections of trees from specific taxonomical and geographical areas. It includes native woodlands and a restored Illinois prairie. The Arboretum has over 4,100 different species of trees, shrubs and other woody plants from around the globe. In all, there are over 186,000 catalogued plants. The Arboretum has 26 km of hiking trails and 14 km of roadways for driving/bicycling.

The arboretum was established on 14 December 1922 by Joy Morton, founder of the Morton Salt Company. Joy Morton’s Thornhill Estate, established in 1910, formed the basis of the Arboretum’s original area. Mr. Morton’s father Julius Sterling Morton was the founder of Arbor Day. [Wiki]

Puzzle: Monaco


Size: 500 pieces,  1 missing
Dimensions: 45cm x 35cm
Producer: Leap Year
Location: Monaco or Monte Carlo, officially the Principality of Monaco, is a small sovereign city-state located in South Western Europe on the northern central coast of the Mediterranean Sea. It is surrounded on three sides by its neighbour, France, and its centre is about 16 km from Italy.

Monaco is the name of the country and its capital (and only) city. It is famous as a tax haven, and wealthy foreigners make up the majority of the population at approximately 84%. [Wiki]

Puzzle: Hilton Head Lighthouse


Size: 504 pieces
Dimensions: 27.3cm x 45.7cm
Producer: Mega, Encore! series
Location: Hilton Head is a resort town (located on an island of the same name on the Atlantic Ocean) in Beaufort County, South Carolina, United States. The island gets its name from Captain William Hilton. In 1663, Captain Hilton identified a headland near the entrance to Port Royal Sound, which he named “Hilton’s Head” after himself. [Wiki]

Puzzle: Coliseum, Rome, Italy


Size: 750 pieces
Dimensions: 59.69cm x 39.37cm
Producer: The Canadian Group, Sure-Lox, Wonders of the World series
Location: The Colosseum, or the Coliseum, originally the Flavian Amphitheatre (Latin: Amphitheatrum Flavium, Italian: Anfiteatro Flavio or Colosseo), is an elliptical amphitheatre in the centre of the city of Rome, Italy, the largest ever built in the Roman Empire. It is considered one of the greatest works of Roman architecture and Roman engineering.

Occupying a site just east of the Roman Forum, its construction started between 70 and 72 AD under the emperor Vespasian and was completed in 80 AD under Titus, with further modifications being made during Domitian’s reign (81–96 AD). The name “Amphitheatrum Flavium” derives from both Vespasian’s and Titus’s family name (Flavius, from the gens Flavia).

Capable of seating 50,000 spectators, the Colosseum was used for gladiatorial contests and public spectacles such as mock sea battles, animal hunts, executions, re-enactments of famous battles, and dramas based on Classical mythology. The building ceased to be used for entertainment in the early medieval era. It was later reused for such purposes as housing, workshops, quarters for a religious order, a fortress, a quarry, and a Christian shrine. [Wiki]

Puzzle: The Sleepy Shopkeeper by Mike Wilks


Size: 550+ pieces
Dimensions: 46cm x 61cm
Producer: Great American Puzzle Factory
Author: Mike Wilks (b. 1947, London) is an artist, illustrator and author of nine books including the global bestseller The Ultimate Alphabet (Pavilion Books, 1987). [Wiki]
Note: Puzzle within a puzzle – find over 1000 things that begin with the letter “S”. “Who would think that here in the nooks and crannies of the sleepy shopkeeper’s store would be over 1,000 subjects starting with the letter “S”?   Sure – there’s a skeleton, a sailboat and some spectacles, but where’s the snake and the sled and the ship? You’ll enjoy this double challenge as you find all the “S” items and put them in to place to form a spectacular puzzle.” [Puzzle page]

Puzzle: A Court Reception

Puzzle without any missing pieces:


Size: 650+ pieces, 3 pieces missing, 3 pieces damaged. Update: Sincere thank you to Cliff from Albany, NY who sent me the missing 3 pieces. His puzzle was missing 5 different pieces, and so between the two of us we could put together a complete one.
Dimensions: 48.26cm round
Producer: Jaymar Specialty Co.
Piece: Adaptation of a porcelain plate decoration, Chinese, K’ang Hsi Period (1662-1772), The Metropolitan Museum of Art
History: The Kangxi Emperor (4 May 1654 – 20 December 1722) was the third emperor of the Qing Dynasty and the second Qing emperor to rule over China proper, from 1661 to 1722.

Kangxi’s reign of 61 years makes him the longest-reigning Chinese emperor in history (although his grandson, the Qianlong Emperor, had the longest period of de facto power) and one of the longest-reigning rulers in the world. However, having ascended to the throne at the age of seven, he was not the effective ruler until later, with that role temporarily fulfilled for six years by four regents and his grandmother, the Grand Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang.

Kangxi is considered one of China’s greatest emperors. He suppressed the Revolt of the Three Feudatories, forced the Kingdom of Tungning on Taiwan to submit to Qing rule, blocked Tzarist Russia on the Amur River and expanded the empire in the northwest. He also accomplished such literary feats as the compilation of the Kangxi Dictionary. [Wiki]