Email us for help
Loading...
Premium support
Log Out
Our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy have changed. We think you'll like them better this way.
Waco, TX – While they may seem quaint and old-fashioned in our modern digital age, jigsaw puzzles remain enormously popular. Better production techniques have led to better puzzles, which have attracted a growing number of enthusiasts.
Still, you never stop to consider who is painting the incredibly detailed pictures and capturing the vivid photographs that make for great jigsaw puzzles.
Kay Lamb Shannon is a fine artist and founder of Strokes of Perfection. Shannon is known for the striking, almost photographic quality of her work rendered through oil. She is also among the go-to artists for Home Interiors and Scaffa Tornabene in New York, as well as two popular catalogue puzzle companies: Bits and Pieces and Sunout.
“Puzzle companies just kept buying my prints to turning them into jigsaw puzzles,” recalls Shannon. “My licenser Elaine Citron and I thought, ‘Why don’t we start creating art for the jigsaw puzzle companies ourselves?’”
Painting for puzzle companies is no simple task. Each piece must be a painting unto itself, with detail and vibrant color, like the folds in the petals of a flower.
“I’ve always considered myself to be a very detailed artist,” says Shannon. “I was wrong. Jigsaw puzzles require much more detail than traditional artwork. I have to tell a story with my painting and it needs to include people. It’s been a challenge.”
At 77 years old, Shannon has no plans of slowing down.
“I’ll paint as long as God lets me,” says Shannon. “It’s just been a real interesting journey. I’m just proud that I’ve been able to continue doing it.”
For more information on Strokes of Perfection, visit http://www.kaylambshannon.com