Jigsaw Junkie

Fifty three-year-old artist Royce McClure laughs and tells us that he never grew up.

Written by Debesh Banerjee
July 6, 2009 03:58 AM IST

3 min read

Fifty three-year-old artist Royce McClure laughs and tells us that he never grew up. A native of Tauranga,New Zealand,McClure has been wracking his brains and painting divinely complex and dazzlingly colourful puzzles for kids to solve,for over 34 years now. Since I grew up near the coastline I would dabble in painting beaches and marine life during my spare time. That passion developed into making paintings for puzzles, explains McClure,who is in India to physically assemble a 25,000 piece puzzle that he designed for a promotion by Lipton Tea. A veteran of over 180 puzzles and paintings,McClure entered the Guinness Book of Records three years ago for making the largest commercially available jigsaw puzzle called Life: The Great Challenge,for a Spanish sports company. The 14 X 5 ft puzzle which features all forms of life on earth from marine life,plants,animals,people and to even planetary objects was made by digitally stitching together 20 paintings. The puzzle was inspired by the idea of showing an abundance of life on earth with a rich bouquet of colours. The challenge was to erase off the large blank spaces where no changes take place, says McClure,who started off as a fine arts painter in New Zealand and took to commercial artwork after a course in Los Angeles. I was actually studying to be a marine biologist but my passion for painting and puzzles took over, he explains.

For his latest challenge,McClure put together a revised version of Life: The Great Challenge online,in April,with an additional 1,000 pieces,making it four times the size of the original puzzle. There are not many changes,except that a logo is seen at a few places and the pieces are larger in size, he says. McClure will be assembling the puzzle at Select Citywalk,Saket,on Monday,along with 12 winners from an online contest,who solved the puzzle the fastest. I was amazed to see that Indians were able to solve the puzzle so quickly. It requires a lot of focus and patience which is not always easy, he adds.

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One of his biggest challenges,says McClure,is to sustain peoples interest in the puzzle alive and not bore them even if its impossible to solve. You should be able to discover yourself through the puzzle, says McClure,who always tests out his new jigsaws with his 23-year-old daughter,Kimberley. I have solved approximately 90 of his puzzles so far, she says. McClure is currently busy designing a puzzle of ceremonially decked up Indian elephants and exploring the idea of Indian gods on puzzles. I like the God with a trunk, he concludes.