Colourful puzzles featuring iconic and much-loved south-west locations have helped brighten residents' days and provide a fun outlet during COVID-19, while also evolving into an unexpected business venture for its creator.
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Artist Karen McKenzie's more recent eye-catching and vibrant designs came about when the Mailors Flat resident wanted to bring joy and help her community at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"I thought 'what can I do?' so I started doing some kids colour-ins and put them on my page for people to download and colour at home," McKenzie said.
"I started colouring a few myself and that developed along the way into the puzzle project because people were expressing that they loved the different designs. It's grown from there."
Some of the destinations featured include Port Fairy, Warrnambool, Koroit, Tower Hill, Port Campbell, Dunkeld, the Twelve Apostles and Great Ocean Road and the Grampians, as well as individual locations including Lake Pertobe, Hopkins Falls, Flagstaff Hill, Warrnambool businesses and more.
It also reinvigorated some of her earlier works of Hopkins River and Lake Pertobe, painted "quite a few years ago" which she said converted really well into puzzles.
One of McKenzie's latest designs is of Port Fairy Consolidated School, highlighting the historic bluestone building, in a joint fundraising venture between her and the school's Parents and Friends Association.
"The school was a new idea and I was really happy to be able to do it," McKenzie said.
"Once I saw the school I thought it was so lovely and it would be awesome to paint it because it had so many different characteristics about it. I thought it would be really nice to paint."
She said while she didn't have a connection to the school, once she saw the sculptures out the front and a couple of big palm trees out the back, it was something she just had to capture.
McKenzie suggested the fund-raising venture to the school after it was forced to cancel its major market fund-raiser, held annually in June, due to COVID-19 two years running.
"I'd been booked in to do a market stall at their Twilight Market, which unfortunately got cancelled so I raised the idea of doing the puzzle as a fundraiser for them," McKenzie said. "I thought they had lost a lot of their fundraising activities."
Parents and Friends Association fund-raising team member Danielle Williamson said they were honoured McKenzie had offered to paint the school and suggested the partnership to help raise money for the school.
"Karen sketched it all up and away we went," Ms Williamson said.
"It was a really fast process. She was so easy to deal with and so generous with her time."
Ms Williamson said the artwork, and subsequent puzzles, was a great representation of the school and its grounds which thousands of students would have passed through over the years.
The image includes the consolidated school's bluestone building that dates back to 1874 and the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program, with the primary school one of the first in the country to establish the popular education program.
"We've also got a Lone Pine tree down the front and that seed came from Gallipoli, so that's pretty impressive, that features," Ms Williamson said.
"Our chickens are in there and we've also got a jester made by one of our local artists, and all the beautiful coloured buildings and sculptures around the place, and our historic bluestone wall too.
"It's such a nice, joyful depiction of the school and the heritage. It's such an important part of the school and the Port Fairy community."
McKenzie only began ordering her works as jigsaws in February. She said the puzzle orders started off small and had continued to grow.
"My puzzles are made in regional Victoria which is another bonus," McKenzie said.
"People are really happy to support local people and products at the moment which is wonderful.
"I enjoy painting smaller places that don't have their own artwork or products. That's why I think people can identify with Peterborough because they've grown up there or they've gone there every year for holidays and its nice to be able to have something that's unique to the area."
"It would normally be hard to get anything with Koroit on it but Renee at (Koroit business) The Local Place has been a good supporter of mine and stocks some of my work."
She said it was Renee who showed her other puzzles made in Victoria, which set the new project in motion.
For those living away, McKenzie's puzzles have provided a piece of home during the pandemic, in what has otherwise been a difficult and challenging time.
"People have bought the puzzles and sent them to family who were stuck in America for the past couple of years."
McKenzie said it was really lovely to hear the different connections people had with her work and the local places that resonated with them.
"Someone bought a Hopkins River puzzle as an anniversary present because that was where they'd had their marriage ceremony down there. It's been really nice to hear."
For others, the bright and vibrant jigsaws have provided a fun source of entertainment and an outlet that brings families together.
McKenzie said one woman bought a puzzle for her mum who was undergoing chemotherapy and her mother had expressed how much she'd enjoyed doing the jigsaw, "mentioning she wouldn't mind getting another one".
"Her daughter came back and purchased another one because it was giving her mum something nice to do at a time that wasn't so nice."
McKenzie completed a Bachelor of Arts at Deakin University 30 years ago, but said she didn't pick up a paintbrush again until 10 years ago.
Looking for something more in her life after working in various jobs, she said she took up painting again to "get happy".
McKenzie said she was very honoured her work brought others joy.
"I like to paint happy cheerful pictures. Some are a little bit funny. I like to try and put a bit of my personality in it so people can look at them and smile."
McKenzie said the idea of painting local tourist destinations came about after she travelled to Alaska and Canada and couldn't find locally-produced souvenirs, with the only items being mass produced and imported from China.
The puzzles also have brought in an income for the artist at a time when tourist destinations and stores along the Great Ocean Road, that stocked her work, were forced to close or had restricted trade during lockdowns.
Her other works include prints, cards, pendants, magnets, T-shirts, and hand-poured resin tabletops.
"Because the tourism bit had been quiet I wouldn't have probably survived without the outlets still being able to trade here and there.
"I had to adapt and sell directly to people because it's my only form of income. Being an artist in general at the best of times, is not always easy."
There are various sized puzzles and pieces range from 60 to 1000 pieces.
To buy the Port Fairy Consolidated fundraising puzzle go to trybooking.com/BUWJO or to view other south-west destinations go to karenmckenzieart.com.au.
