My first attempt to paint after losing my vision was at a sip and paint at the House of Beer in Dunedin Florida.
I was hesitant with this project, which was to paint oranges. Everyone was using a jar lid to trace the shape of the oranges. This was too small for me to see! I thought for a bit, hesitated some more, and then a workshop helper placed a paper plate of paint in front of me. That was it! Plate sized oranges. I placed the paper plate on my wood fence slats and traced it with a pencil, to make three enormous oranges. And of course stuck my fingers in the paint, which I didn’t notice until it was everywhere. Face. Hair. Watchband. This is what it’s like to be a blind artist, I was discovering, delighted with myself for even trying.
I think the best part of this project and this painting is looking at each orange in the finished piece, the one on the left, for example, and knowing, ahh yes that orange was after one glass of Prosecco. The one to the right, that was after two glasses of Prosecco. The one in the middle, in the shadows, three. And of course, the leaves, those poor little leaves, there should have been more but I was out of time and out of Prosecco. I was the last one there and it was time to go.
GriAnne Furey 