And there was no respite; it stared us in the face day and night because I'd started piecing it together on the coffee table in the living room. Three weeks it's been lurking there, this beast of a thing. It swallows up your time - and patience - with it's mangle of shapes and colours. The house work has been neglected, children gone unwashed (except that we haven't any - but they would have gone unwashed if we had) and the neighbours have questioned if we still live here.
What is it which has inflamed and infuriated us so? It's a 1000 piece jigsaw of Vincent Van Gogh's "Fritillaries in a Copper Vase". I know where I would like to have put Vincent Van Gogh's Fritillaries and it wouldn't have been a vase, that's for sure!
And why was it so infuriatingly difficult, you may ask? Well, let's just look at the painting...
"Fritillaires dans un Vase de Cuivre" was painted in Paris in early 1887, in a style which reflects both Impressionism and a Neo-Impressionist technique called Pointillism. Aspects of Impressionism, as defined by Beaujean, D (2000) consist of "using gleaming spots of light, colour in shadows, colours straight from the tube in dots or dashes, and dissolving firm outlines". Those words "dissolving firm outlines" should raise the alarm bells but added to this is Pointillism which uses dots of contrasting colours to intensify the image.
The two combined add up to pretty poor subject matter for a jigsaw - unless you want to add years to your age whilst you sweat blood and tears over it!!
Anyway, as you can see from the photos, it's finished. I've enjoyed every minute!
After all, what a dull life we'd lead if we didn't relish a challenge!
Any takers? It's available for loan should you fancy a go! On second thoughts... you can have the wretched thing!!
Reference:
Beaujean, D (2000). Van Gogh: Life and Work. Cologne: Konemann.
Art Gallery Collection Jigsaw: Aldi (2013) Chinon. €3.99
3 comments:
I can do a swap...
Gaynor, you're on!! See you soon.
For years and years my mum gave me a new jigsaw every Christmas and some of them were absolute torture. Huge swathes of the same blue sky, the same grey sea, the same green fields.
She had a wicked sense of humour but something would NEVER let me give up and admit defeat, they would always get finished, even if it took weeks.
I can see what you mean about this one. It looks a real stinker.......
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