Come Rain Come Shine - by Malcolm Root

1000 Piece Puzzles - 685mm x 490mm

Box Dimensions - 305mm x 305mm x 50mm



Come Rain Come Shine is a 1000 jigsaw puzzle in the Gibsons catalog of a small english countryside village in a summer afternoon. The children in their uniforms rush home to get at the fridge. School uniforms are still worn by students on the British Isles in the comprehensive school system and not only at private schools. The old fashioned milk van is picking up the empty milk bottles and leaves a few new pints of milk. On a frosty morning fresh milk left at the front door would have their metal tops pushed up by the milk as it froze. Often the birds would peck at the silver bottle tops to get at the cream which would rise to the top of the milk bottle. Ducks are pecking at the ford which is a uniquely english way of crossing a stream. Obviously given the temperate climate huge rainfalls and swollen rushing rivers were and still are infrequent in the UK so driving through a few inches of water would pose no problem. The houses are solid stone and ivy, which can take hundrerds of years to grow, covers the house in the foreground. The village street rises up in the background to meet the light clouds which Malcolm Root is a master at capturing. The english church spire and large oak trees round out this peaceful afternoon. Malcolm Root was born in Colchester and has lived in North Essex ever since. He left school at sixteen and trained as a printing apprentice, with a view to a career in design and typography.

In 1982, Malcolm left the printing trade and set up in business as a full-time artist. His works were featured at a number of small exhibitions and it wasn't long before commissions started coming in on a regular basis . In 1983, Malcolm was elected to full membership of the guild of Railway Artists and some of his paintings were published in books and magazines. Following this, three books devoted to the paintings of Malcolm Root were published; one on twentieth century transport and two on railways, the most recent being Malcolm Root's Railway Paintings. Gibsons have several jigsaw puzzles in their puzzle catalogue by Malcolm who covers subject matter from the Victorian era on for his 1000 piece and 636 piece jigsaw puzzle images.

Malcolm has always been interested in the period when public transport was at its peak, when trains and buses were used by the majority and only a few fortunate could affort to own a car. In those days, every decent-sized town and many villages were connected by branch lines that covered the British Isles, making travel a real adventure.

Malcolm's hobbies are football, cycling and local history. At present, he is busy painting for calendars, collector's plates and of course, jigsaw puzzles.