How blind artists create incredible paintings. Art therapeutic technique “blind artist” Which artist became blind towards the end of his life

Blind artist. How do you feel when you hear this phrase? Surely the question arises: “How?!” How can people who are deprived of the ability to see depict something on paper and canvas? How can they, who don’t know what red and blue are, create real works of art? However, there are not so few blind artists.

Sergei Popolzin

For as long as he can remember, he always dreamed of becoming a professional artist and tried several times to enter the Irkutsk Art School. After studying for a short time, he was forced to quit classes due to certain circumstances, but continued to draw like a man possessed. Sergei spent almost all his free time in museums, experimenting with materials and textures, studying the art of icon painting, and copying the works of great masters. But his talent was not recognized by the general public. This circumstance led to a suicide attempt: Sergei tried to shoot himself, but the bullet went right through. He survived, but lost his sight completely. He burned all his works, but after some time he again picked up brushes and paints. He “draws” a sketch of the future painting in his imagination, thinking through every detail to the smallest detail and using two techniques: glaze and impasto painting. In the first case, the master mixes paints on the canvas, applying them in a thin, almost transparent layer. In the second, a kind of relief image is obtained by applying paint in dense strokes. To navigate in space, Sergei sticks needles into the canvas, and in some cases uses cardboard stencils.

John Bramblitt

After another epileptic attack, the American artist John Bramblitt lost his sight and could only distinguish between light and darkness. He found his salvation from despair, melancholy and despondency in drawing, developing his own unique style: he uses special textured paints, due to which he focuses on the canvas. The sense of touch became his “eyes.” All paint tubes are labeled in Braille, and to mix them, John measures out the required amount of each color, similar to measuring ingredients for baking a cake.

Terry is not only an artist, but also an excellent teacher who helps blind people learn to draw. He developed his own technique: first you need to make a “sketch” using plasticine, with which you can separate sections of the canvas. Next, these “zones” are filled with acrylic paints. According to the master, mixing paints to achieve the desired shade is quite difficult: this may require an assistant who can be completely trusted, or simply a phenomenal memory and imagination.

Esref was born blind into a poor family and never learned to read or write, much less paint. Nevertheless, he is the real pride of Turkey. At the age of 25, he first tried to paint with oil paints, using his fingers instead of a brush. The artist prefers to work in absolute silence. As he himself says, he must “get inside his picture and become one with it.” Esref's technique is as follows: first, using a braille stylus, he makes a sketch, then applies the first color with his finger and waits for it to dry completely. This process takes about 3 days, it is necessary so that the paints do not smear.

Most of all, Keith loves to walk in the mountains, and they are the main subject of his works. Keith studied fine art in college, worked for a time as a sculptor, exhibited and had success. But gradually his vision began to deteriorate very quickly, but he did not want to give up his favorite business. His work has two directions: pastel drawings and painting with strokes of oil or acrylic paints. Recently, the master has been trying to combine these two techniques in order to “convey the wonderful world as clearly as possible.”

The disease took away Lisa's vision. All she could see was gray, but even that caused unbearable headaches. The only thing that saved her was the dark glasses that she was forced to wear all the time. One day her husband brought her watercolors. This is what made the woman perk up and stop feeling sorry for herself. She drew everything: various objects, animals, people, landscapes, and every time she did it better and better. The artist’s talent has not gone unnoticed: she has many orders, her works are exhibited and sold. In each of her works you can “read” a unique story.

Of all the disabling diseases, blindness is considered the most complex in its characteristics. Some visually impaired people give up, but there are also those who, despite their disability, continue to fight and create. Vivid proof of this is 4 artists who did not leave their profession.

KEITH SALMON

British artist Keith Salmon traveled for a long time to different parts of the United Kingdom - from Wales to Scotland, the contrasting landscapes and nature of which inspired the artist to create his vibrant works. Several years ago, the artist was diagnosed with diabetic retinopathy, which left him blind, but this only contributed to the development of his artistic vision. His landscapes are beautiful, abstract and recognizable by their use of vibrant color.

JOHN BRAMBLITT

John Bramblitt is an American artist whose work features vibrant arrays of color and classic American iconography. He went blind ten years ago due to complications from epilepsy, but this did not stop him from creating, moreover, the artist became an inspiring figure for all disabled people in his home state of Texas.

SARGY MANN

At the age of thirty, British artist Sargie Mann began to go blind from cataracts, but despite this, he is yet another artist who has not abandoned his calling. His persistence paid off and today his paintings sell for more than £50,000. The artist said that, having become blind, his works became more complex and mysterious. The artist, unfortunately, died on April 5, 2015.

JEFF HANSON

A strong color palette and sophisticated technique are what immediately catches your eye when you see the work of American artist Jeff Hanson. Using repeating geometric shapes, he takes inspiration from the natural world.

In fact, in the world, you can be endlessly surprised by many things, even without being an impressionable person. Esfer Armagan- one of many phenomena that caused a reaction of impression among a large audience. And his strong point, no matter how ironic it may sound, is his blindness. Armagan creates a world in his paintings without seeing the real world. Blind Turkish artist, which continues to this day to tell the outside world about its “internal empires.”

It is difficult to answer whether the delight in his paintings could be so strong if they belonged to a sighted person, since, at first glance, these works are similar to children’s drawings - they are very sincere and simple, both in subject matter and technically.
The case is truly unique. Esfer is blind from birth and knows about the world. in which he was born and lives, only from the words of those around him and thanks to the sensations that remained with him. The value of his paintings, first of all, is that they act as a guide between blind and seeing eyes. These are peculiar images of inner vision, insights that emerged from the darkness.

It is not easy for Armagan to paint; usually, this process occurs in stages. The artist first applies the background color to the entire area of ​​the future painting and waits for it to dry. Then a pattern is applied to this soil using a sharpened peg. Afterwards, the artist checks by feeling whether he was able to realize the intended image. If the desired has come true, Esfer begins coloring. His main tools are his own fingers and gouache.

There is no mysticism in such creativity, but a beautiful mystery is always present. Blind photographers, sculptors, directors, designers are like a cook with a lifelong chronic runny nose. They exist and wait for attention, quietly and modestly.

The talent of a painter is not the destiny of all people with acute vision, let alone the blind! Can one expect that a person deprived of vision will be able to put precise lines on the canvas, achieve the right combination of colors, light and shadow? Despite everything, blind artists draw, and they draw in such a way that it is difficult to believe in their uniqueness.

For an artist, loss of vision can be the end of a career. There are many famous examples: Levitsky, Vrubel, Korovin. All these great painters were forced to say goodbye to their calling due to blindness. But is this always a verdict? Modern artists who are faced with a similar problem are not always ready to give up what they love and continue to draw, despite the lack of vision. And sometimes blindness, on the contrary, only helps a talent that has been dormant for many years to fully reveal itself. As experience shows, the main thing is not to give up, and dreams of new creative achievements will become a reality.

"Proud of Dad"

On the entertainment portal Pikaby, a user from Chelyabinsk shared the story of her 79-year-old father, who completely lost his sight, posting a post under the touching title “I’m proud of my dad.” The man’s problems began seven years ago; neither treatment nor surgery helped. Throughout this period he painted. As the author of the post admits, this technique could rather be described as “application”, but the paintings are made so exquisitely that it is almost impossible to believe the fact that their author is blind. The blind artist created more than a hundred paintings, and on March 4 an exhibition of his works opened in Chelyabinsk.

In the comments, the master’s work was rated very highly, noting that it fully corresponds to the concept of “modern art,” and they admired his fortitude. This inspiring example is far from isolated.

For drawing, blind artists use not only traditional paints, brushes, canvas and easel, but also many other auxiliary devices: foil, plasticine, silk, crayons, wax pencils, polystyrene foam, cellophane, thin rubber. All this helps give the painting relief, define reference lines and makes it possible to “read” the drawing with your fingers in order to understand what needs to be done to give it a completed look.

Lisa Fittipaldi

Spectators who enjoy viewing colorful and positive works Lisa Fittipaldi, are usually shocked to learn about the artist's blindness. The woman lost her sight in 1993, and two years later she picked up brushes for the first time in her life. Before that, she, an accountant and financial analyst, had never been involved in art, but it was drawing that helped Fittipaldi get out of a long depression. Many difficulties awaited her along the way, because the woman did not have the opportunity to study various drawing techniques visually, and in order to mark the boundaries, at first she had to use a net of ropes stretched over a canvas. Fittipaldi was told more than once that she would never be able to step beyond flowers and abstractions, but she succeeded. Now the artist constantly paints street scenes and people, and how she does this without seeing the colors, Fittipaldi, according to her, does not understand herself.

Dmitry Didorenko

The young artist from Kharkov was not blind from birth and showed great promise as a painter, but an accident happened to him. 24 year old Dmitry Didorenko was blown up by an old mine left over from the Second World War during a search expedition and after that he lost his sight, and with it his hopes for further creative self-realization. The artist fell into depression, and one of his friends, in order to get him out of this state, suggested organizing an exhibition of Didorenko’s old works. This episode became a kind of starting point: Didorenko began to draw again to prove that he was still an artist. Initially, his works could only be called paintings with a stretch, but progress was not long in coming. Didorenko's paintings were exhibited in the USA, Japan and other countries.

John Bramblitt

Another iconic name in the galaxy of blind artists is John Bramblitt. He had health problems since childhood, due to which he began to lose his sight at the age of 11. At age 30, Bramblitt became completely blind due to complications from epilepsy and Lyme disease. Like his other comrades in misfortune, the artist fell into depression, but a year later he found a way out of it in art. As the painter himself says, he distinguishes the density of paint by touch and feels the picture without even seeing it. Bramblit's canvases are highly realistic; he paints very similar portraits of people whose faces the artist has never seen, and his works are exhibited in many countries and are widely known even among those who are far from the world of art and do not know that the paintings were painted by a blind artist.

Sergei Popolzin

When Sergei Popolzin was a healthy person with good eyesight, circumstances prevented him from gaining recognition as an artist. At first he made several attempts to enter the Irkutsk Art School, then he succeeded, but was forced to quit his studies after a while, but devoted most of his leisure time to drawing. The broad masses did not recognize the artist’s unique talent, and he decided to commit suicide by shooting himself in the head. The suicide attempt was unsuccessful, but Popolzin completely lost his sight. In despair, he burned all his previous works, but soon began to draw again. As the artist admits, the sketch of each work is born in his head, honed to the smallest detail, and then transferred to canvas. The master orients himself in space by sticking needles into the canvas, and makes the image in relief.

Keith Salmon

The main plot of the works Keith Salmon– mountains, and not by chance: walking in the mountains is the artist’s favorite pastime. Before losing his sight, he attended college, where he studied fine arts, then worked as a sculptor, held exhibitions of his work and enjoyed well-deserved popularity. However, having become blind, Salmon did not give up creativity and continued to draw. He works in two directions: pastel drawings and painting with oil or acrylic strokes. According to Salmon, combining these techniques could convey the world more clearly.

Esref Armagan

Unlike most of his blind creative colleagues, Esref Armagan was born blind and did not lose his sight as a result of illness or accident. He was born into a poor family that could not teach him to read or write, much less the basics of fine art, but this did not stop the artist from becoming the pride of Turkey. Armagan took his first steps in drawing at the age of 25, trying to depict a drawing using oil paints. It is interesting that he painted not with a brush, but with his own fingers. Esref uses a special braille stylus to sketch, then applies color with his finger and waits for the paint to dry completely. This process takes a long time - about three days, but this is necessary so that the paint does not smudge.