The Jigsaw Gallery » gale pitt

Alphabet car boot sale

puzzler — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 22:11:04 +0000

The choice was mine: if I’d wanted I could have spent half a week compiling a list of the 260 objects (ten for each letter of the alphabet) shown in this puzzle. I was, however, inexplicably overcome with a sudden attack of lazy-itis. Besides, the answer sheet came with the puzzle — not bad, considering this was another of our secondhand bargains; pre-owned puzzles have an alarming tendency to lose such treasures as answer sheets, not to mention crucial pieces.

A quick glance at the solution to this latest Gale Pitt brainteaser confirmed my suspicions: let’s just say I’d have been a while (understatement of the week, that) trying to name such obscurities as the zebu, the xyster and the yarmulke.

In any case, we were too busy trying to work out what had happened to the side panels and front end of the little white van behind the red car in the centre of the picture. It is possible, I suppose, that parts of the van are hidden by what could be a suitcase on the red car’s roof rack. This case is not among the listed alphabet items, though, and is also (if indeed it is a suitcase) very close in colour to the stallholder’s table behind the van. Was this picture subjected to some injudicious airbrush treatment during the production process — or is it finally time for me to get myself down to Specsavers?

The tornado

puzzler — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 11:09:45 +0000

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.

Country life

puzzler — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 22:06:11 +0000

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?

The alphabet garden

puzzler — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 09:13:48 +0000

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.