Solving jigsaw puzzles as a hobby comes with a lot of surprising benefits. At the same time, it is a cognitive exercise, a mindfulness strategy, and when it is a fine art puzzle, it becomes a celebration of art. It can be a bonding activity for you and your family members, too. If you’re looking for a new hobby or an art piece for your room, you will enjoy putting together fine art puzzles during your free time. Here are four benefits of collecting these wonderful artistic pieces:
- Fun Way to Collect Art
Art puzzles display unique visual images ranging from traditional children’s stories, illustrations of lively events to beautiful places around the world. They are colourful and richly-detailed by nature. That’s why they make interesting centrepieces to any space.
A finished puzzle featuring an artist’s masterpiece is a separate art form on its own. You can frame your puzzle and hang it as artwork in your home. The effort you put into the activity only adds to its charm when you remember how challenged and satisfied you were solving it.
- Cognitive Exercise for Children and Adults
Putting together an art puzzle has several benefits for the brain, specifically in cognition and visuospatial reasoning. It requires concentration, thus, improves our problem-solving and short-term memory. Puzzles entail both logic and intuitiveness and make a good brain exercise. It helps strengthen the connection of brain cells that will improve our processing speed.
Whether we do it alone or as a collaborative activity, solving puzzles exercises our imagination and creativity. It is also a time away from screens and devices, providing old-school enjoyment similar to traditional board games.
- Form of Therapy
Solving puzzles is a great way for us to practice mindfulness. In this fast-paced world, we often do not have the time to sit in quiet contemplation. We try to be productive every minute of the day. However, when we do not take breaks, it only adds to our stress, leading to burnout. When we practice mindfulness, our amygdala becomes less activated. This part of our brains related to stress will be more relaxed and elicit a calm feeling in us.
Puzzle-solving serves as a symbolic approach to dealing with life. It is a challenge similar to what we encounter every day. In different phases of solving a puzzle, we may have feelings of excitement, frustration, curiosity, and more. Finally, when a puzzle comes together, we get a feeling of closure and satisfaction. In a sense, puzzles remind us that solutions appear after effort and perseverance. It suggests a better way of looking at life, which is looking at the bigger picture. Furthermore, puzzles tell us we can always have fun in solving challenges that come in our lives.
- A New Approach to Art Appreciation
Art appreciation is a deep exploration of different art forms, including fine paintings. They let people identify great art pieces through understanding their style and techniques, and even movements and history. Art is also a form of communication, and like learning a language, we must recognise symbols and conventions that are distinctive of one’s masterpiece. Whether it’s for improving your art or developing a critique, reading an artwork provides us with an emotional and intellectual experience.
When you’re putting together fine art puzzles, you see parts of the artwork in unconventional shapes and combinations. You will notice the tiniest of details and see the artist’s techniques and strokes that you won’t be able to notice right away otherwise. A finished puzzle will let you realise that one artwork is made of equally rich pieces that constitute a greater whole. You will have a heightened appreciation of a masterpiece from all the reading you did on every part of the artwork.
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