Heye - Inner Mystic: Sylvan Spectre 1000 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle

A small white figure with antlers, standing alone on a fallen log over still water, in a wood full of mist. Andy Kehoe paints atmosphere rather than scenes, and this is one of the quietest images in the whole range.

What you are looking at

The spectre is tiny in the frame, a pale hooded shape with bare antler branches instead of a face, standing at the middle of a mossy log that bridges a dark pool. It is the only white thing in the picture and it holds the whole composition together.

On either side, bare trees rise in near-black silhouette, a few of them still carrying sparse orange and gold leaves. Between them, the wood dissolves into a flat teal-grey mist with no horizon in it. Along both banks, dense low drifts of small blue and white wildflowers, painted with visible texture. From Heye's Inner Mystic series.

What it is like to build

Two thirds of this puzzle is mist and it is the entire difficulty. Say that plainly: this is a low-contrast, low-information image, and it is bought by people who want that. It will not be a quick evening.

The tree silhouettes are the skeleton and they are unmistakable. Near black against pale grey-green, with hard branching edges. Build the trees first, both sides, and you will have divided the mist into a few smaller closed areas rather than one large open one.

The flower banks are the fastest region, dense with small blue and white marks on dark ground, and they close the bottom corners.

For the mist itself, sort by warmth and by height. Kehoe has laid a faint warm cast into the upper middle where the light comes through and left the lower mist cooler and greyer. It is subtle but it is consistent, and once you see it you can place a piece to within a third of the picture.

Why Heye

Heye are German and their whole editorial position is licensing artwork nobody else would print. Andy Kehoe is the clearest example of it: a painter working in muted, textured, faintly melancholy scenes with no story attached, published as a series rather than as one-offs. Surreal and quiet art is a small corner of this category and Heye more or less own it.

Specifications

A little context

Inner Mystic titles hang together as a set better than most series because the palette barely changes across them: muted teals, blacks, a single warm accent. If you build one and like it, the others will match on a wall. We also carry Inner Mystic: Woodland, and the rest of the brand is at HEYE.

This one is out at the moment and we would rather say so than take your money. Ask to be told the moment it returns and you will hear from us first. Free shipping Australia wide over $150, and free same-day delivery inside 6 km of North Bondi.

Built it already? Use the Questions section below and tell us how you found it. Which part fought you, how long it took, and whether you would send someone else to it. We answer every one.