It's been an unconscionable amount of time since my last post, mainly because I've wanted to keep Herb Brill's great painting on top, but also because I haven't had a lot of time to devote to the site! Much of this has had to due with caring for my elderly parents.

Just wanted to let everyone know that I'm still taking Christmas orders, with a backlog of about two weeks.

Best wishes for your Christmas season!

Pete

As puzzle maker for Brill Gallery, featuring the abstract paintings of Herbert Brill, I have received permission to make custom puzzles from any of the many images featured on the Gallery's website.

Mr. Brill is a retired executive of Pepsi-Cola International, and an amateur painter of professional caliber. His work, very large canvases drawn from his life experiences and travels, has been exhibited in several of the world's great museums and salons. Be sure to visit the Gallery website to learn more about Mr. Brill's fascinating life and art including, for example, how he learned to paint after his B-17 was forced to land in occupied France during WWII.

In the near future, I will have a page for Mr. Brill as a featured artist, with prices for selected works, but for the meantime please feel free to contact me if you wish to have a puzzle made from one of these images.

Shown above: Cows at St. Saud, copyright Brill Gallery, used with permission

Have a great 4th!

Pete

My, oh, my, a dreadful amount of time has passed since my last post. The main event has been that I have been busy with taxes (I'm also an accountant) and also with puzzles. In fact, on April 17th, the big deadline day, I managed to find time to cut up a picture of 33 cheerleaders to make a party puzzle for the occasion of a major competition the squad was in. It was a great picture, and I hope to receive permission from those in it so I can show the puzzle on the site.

So now I am free to put a lot of time and energy into puzzles, and I am hoping for a fruitful season. Besides dealing with customers, I will be pursuing art acquisition and also making some interesting puzzles to show on the site.

Oh, yes, I also need to make good on my previously-expressed intention to offer sample puzzles in an organized way. In the meantime, if you have been wondering about my puzzles and would like to have a cutting sample before making a major investment, please feel free to write or call and we can work something out.

It's springtime! Don't you just love it?

Pete

One of these days, I'm going to have a Testimonials page in order to share customers' comments about my work, but this one from yesterday was too good to hold back:

Later I had a great phone conversation with another customer, which I wish I had recorded because I can't report it verbatim, but it began with, "This puzzle is fabulous!"

I know that I make nice puzzles, but it sure feels good to hear that from satisfied customers! Yesterday was not the first time for this, but it was a very good day.

This all got me to thinking about how Puzzle Art puzzles are such a hands-on experience. You really need to see the colors, the beautiful wood and finish, and the cut and fit of the pieces in order to appreciate them fully. For this reason, I think I'm going to make some inexpensive sampler puzzles in order to let people see what they're like without making a large investment.

I'll be hanged if I'm going to make wood boxes for them, though!

Pete

Since hanging out my shingle last November, I've made several custom puzzles, but unfortunately can't display them because of messy details like the need for model and property releases, so I haven't any eye candy to show today. The projects, however, have been very satisfying. Following is a rundown of current projects to give some flavor of what Puzzle Art is about these days:

• One person has ordered four custom puzzles in the past two months, the third of which was shipped today to arrive on location for a ski weekend. These three puzzles have been made from very nice casual photos of my customer's friends' children and grandchildren. Even though I have a vested interest in making puzzles, I can't think of a gift that would be less likely to wind up in a dumpster in a few years.
• I'm taking a break tonight from cutting a puzzle from a Christmas picture of a large, good-looking family. The recipient is the matriarch of this clan, who happens to be a puzzle fanatic. Again, this is truly a great gift.
• Today I mounted a print of a spectacular original abstract painting at the behest of the artist's family members. This puzzle is a "dry run" to see how the artwork translates to puzzle form, which hopefully will lead to producing puzzles from this gentleman's paintings on a larger scale.
• For the past week or so, I have been exchanging e-mails with a geriatric caregiver concerning a series of puzzles for a man with Alzheimer's disease. This falls into the category of adaptive puzzles, or what I have termed "Special Needs Puzzles". As I understand it, puzzles are particularly helpful in the treatment of Alzheimer's because they encourage the puzzler to engage in advance planning. For this individual, the puzzles will use the same picture, but increase in difficulty in order to develop problem-solving skills. Right now, the caregiver and I are reviewing pictures in order to find something that this man will be most responsive to based on his personal taste and background.

Something I have learned is that Yours Truly has turned out to have a flair for photo editing, discovered in the course of making custom photo puzzles for others. Typically, I'll adjust the color range, hue, shadows, highlights, contrast, and color intensity on your photo to make it look as good as possible and to make it more visually interesting for purposes of making a puzzle. This is included in my $15 standard charge for photo handling and printing.

Pete