Sea Anemones by Ernst Haeckel – 500 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle (Pomegranate)

Twenty or so sea anemones arranged like a forest around a dark gap of open water: a scarlet disc at the top, one striped like a barber's pole, a pale ochre one with writhing tentacles, a salmon-pink column with a fringed crown, a mauve one on a bulbous foot, frilled cream clusters at the base. Ernst Haeckel drew the plate for Kunstformen der Natur in 1904, a book that is half biology and half design.

The mottled olive rock behind them is dark and featureless, which is where the time goes; the anemones themselves are all different and sort easily. Finished size 45.7 x 68.6cm.