Her Coat of Many Colors by Tamara Madden – 1000 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle (Pomegranate)

Tamara Madden's subject faces straight out of a tall, narrow canvas, one hand raised at her shoulder and the other open at her waist, in gold drop earrings and a gold pendant, with a crown of gold filigree spreading above her head. The coat is the point — dozens of small patched squares in red, ochre, black, teal and cream, each carrying its own print — set against a mottled sage and blue-grey ground where small gold birds fly.

The patchwork is really a hundred tiny separate pictures, which makes it kinder than it looks; the washed background is the section that slows everything down. Finished size 40.6 x 81.3cm.