Artist: Alison Philpotts
Puzzle Design: Siri Olson
Dimensions: 37 cm x 30 cm
Piece Count: 388
Difficulty: 3 out of 5
"Learn of the green-world what can be thy place..."
— Ezra Pound, Canto LXXXI
Table of Contents
About the Artist: Alison Philpotts
Originally born in Montreal and an alumnus of McGill University, fine artist Alison Philpotts has spent decades capturing the vastness, shifting textures, and quiet drama of the Canadian West. Specializing in large-scale landscape paintings using rich acrylics, her main sources of inspiration flow directly from the stunning prairie and mountain scenery of Southern Alberta and British Columbia.
For Alison, working with paint has always felt like a natural, foundational mode of expression—a gift she credits to her father, who first introduced her to the tactile mechanics of acrylic painting techniques, guiding her early hands through the rules of color mixing, composition, and artistic flow. In her formative years, Alison refined her eye by emulating the legendary giants of Canadian landscape painting, such as Tom Thomson and A.Y. Jackson, alongside the light-chasing European Impressionists like Van Gogh, Cézanne, and Monet. Over time, she distilled these heavy influences into her own distinctive, luminous style.
Rather than chasing a strictly representational or photographic image of a place, Alison’s work deliberately prioritizes vibrant, layered colors to evoke a specific feeling, memory, or mood. Whether it is the precise way autumn sunlight filters through a canopy of leaves, the quiet interplay of deep shadows within a forest, or the majestic expanse of prairie wind meets rocky giants, her ultimate aim is to transport the viewer directly into the natural world through the canvas.
For Alison, a painting truly succeeds when it allows a patron to slow down, step into the frame, and connect with their own deeply held memories of similar wild places. Today, her evocative pieces are held in private collections throughout Canada and the United States.
Links
Alison Philpotts Fine Art — Official Website
Alison Philpotts on Instagram (@alisonphilpotts)
Alberta Prairie Conversation Forum
Travel Alberta - Combow Trail Road Trip
Siri's Puzzle Design Notes
When I first started designing Alison Philpotts' Heading West, my mind went immediately to the critter side of things. The foothills feel very alive to me. Even when the landscape appears quiet, there's a sense that something is moving through the grass, watching from a fence line, or disappearing over the next hill. I wanted the puzzle design to reflect that feeling, so many of the whimsies and hidden details grew from the wildlife that make this stretch of Alberta feel familiar.
Driving through this area, it feels like you almost always see deer, and you definitely always see barbed wire fences, so both found their way into the puzzle. If you've ever walked through tall prairie grass, you know how dramatically your sense of scale changes. Suddenly the plants around you feel enormous, and small insects become the dominant characters in the landscape. The foreground whimsies capture a bit of that feeling, while visual connections between shapes helped inspire others: a jumping grasshopper that mirrors a leaping deer, or a windmill that echoes the shape of dandelion seeds drifting in the wind.
You may also notice a decorative frame running around the edge of the puzzle. Partly, it felt fitting for such a picturesque piece of art, but it was also a nod to fellow edge-builders. I often start with the border, so I wanted to make that part feel special. Inspired by classic filigree frames, the border becomes its own little puzzle within the puzzle, and comes together surprisingly quickly once you spot the pattern.
The final hidden feature is a 3D alternative solution. For Alison's Larch Valley puzzle, I created a miniature version of Alison painting the art on her easel, all in puzzle-piece form. This time, I wanted the alternative build to reflect the shape of the land itself. The Alberta foothills naturally rise in stepped layers as they move toward the mountains. To echo that geology, the solution is built in tiers, recreating those layers in a vertical form. By pulling out specific hidden pieces from the main image, you assemble a stacked landscape that rises from your table, layer by layer, up to the Rockies at the top.
Together, these details highlight the hidden depth of the foothills, the micro-habitats woven throughout them, and the quiet discoveries found by slowing down, shifting your perspective, and paying attention with every step you take.
Whimsy List
3x Leaping Deer
3x Grasshoppers
3x Dandelion Seeds
2x Fescue Grass Stalks
2x Cows
Wolf
Prairie Dog
Rabbit Hiding in Grass
Shrew
Painted Lady Butterfly
Hawk
Ross Goose
Crow
Mallard Drake
Unicorn Cloud
Cloud Gazer
Windmill
Tractor
Quad
Abandoned Wheel
Hidden Secrets
Clue 1: Secret Image
Clue 2: Puzzle Map
Clue 3: Building Demonstration
