The Jigsaw Gallery

Gale Pitt’s ‘The Tornado’ is essentially a montage of everyday objects and animals (food, furniture, frogs and so on) on a background of peaceful countryside. Only when you see the cows and sheep panicking, running for their lives, and the people who have been spared from the tornado’s greedy mouth, do you realise that it may not be merely an exercise in painting pretty pictures: what is shown here has really happened to real people and real animals. The contrast between art and reality merely adds to the horror.

Fortunately, no jigsaw pieces had disappeared — either due to human or to tornado influence — from this excellent secondhand bargain.

With a Gale Pitt puzzle, you often get a choice of seasons. The best bits from a puzzler’s point of view are the wintery areas, because snow white pieces are easy to find in the box. Next in line are the red or golden leaves in the autumn areas. The various greens of spring and summer can get a bit too mixed up; it’s most helpful if there’s a big stripy tent or something else distinctive to look out for. It’s not that I want things easy all the time, but there’s no point making it more difficult than it needs to be, is there?

Each letter of the alphabet corresponds to not one but several items in Gale Pitt’s garden. Some of the obscure insects listed under ‘Z’ would have been impossible for anyone but a professor of entomology to identify. A cheat sheet with the name, outline and location of all the items was, much to our relief, included with the puzzle. If we’re feeling artistic one day, we might colour it in.

An easy one for puzzle novices to divvy up: “I’ll take spring and summer, and you can have autumn and winter.” See? Democracy in action, and all thanks to artist, Gale Pitt.