My Wife is My Best Art Critic

My name is Charles, known as the Real Blind Artist, and this is my story—told in my own voice, straight from the easel.

Welcome to realblindartist.com. Where you’ll find my world of impressionism art, abstract paintings, and expressive works created by a partially blind painter who refuses to let darkness dim the colors inside my head.

People always ask, “How do you paint like that when you can’t see?” The answer starts long before I lost central vision in my right eye to (Wet) Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD). My left eye is affected by ‘Dry AMD”. There is no cure, but there is hope in my art.

I’ve been painting since I was nine years old. That little boy with a brush never left me. Even when the doctors confirmed the diagnosis (2013), the need to create only grew louder. I paint because I must—because leaving something behind that says “I was here” matters more to me than perfect eyesight ever did. And who knows? Maybe fifty or a hundred years from now, someone will stumble across one of my canvases and finally “discover” me. The thought still makes me grin.

My style?

I live in the sweet spot between impressionism, abstract, and expressive art. I don’t need perfect sight to feel the energy of a sunset or the chaos of emotion that begs to spill onto canvas. Long before a single brush touches paint, I sketch the scene—lightly, quickly—until I can see the finished painting clearly in my mind. That mental image is my roadmap. I build the piece layer by layer, revisiting it a dozen times, sometimes more. My wife has become my most trusted critic. When she says, “Stop, it’s perfect,” I usually listen… eventually. There are nights I sneak back into the studio for just one more stroke. As I tiptoe out, I’ll hear her voice float in from the living room: “You touched it again, didn’t you?” Busted every time. She’s saved more paintings than I’ll ever admit.

I’m far from the first blind or visually impaired artist to pick up a brush. History is full of us. Esref Armagan, born completely blind in Turkey, taught himself perspective and shadow using only touch and imagination—his landscapes still stun art professors. John Bramblitt lost his sight to epilepsy and reinvented painting with raised outlines and textured oils; his portraits practically breathe. Keith Salmon, blinded by glaucoma, turned memories of Scottish mountains into sweeping abstract impressions that feel more alive than photographs ever could. We stand on each other’s shoulders, proving that vision lives deeper than the eyes.

Sighted artists paint what’s right in front of them; I paint with the little sight I have left in one eye and a whole lot of memory, emotion, and dream. Where they chase the precise blue of a fading sky, I chase the feeling it once gave me—guided by touch, stubbornness, and whatever vision still flickers—until the canvas holds bold, textured truth that begs you to feel it instead of just seeing it.

For me, art is the purest form of free speech on earth. No one can censor a feeling translated into color. No law can stop a stroke of paint that screams joy, grief, or defiance. When the world tries to box you in because of a disability, a canvas becomes your megaphone. Every painting I finish is a declaration: I am still here, still creating, still free.

Art is in the eye of the beholder—ironic, right? I may not see the way you do, but I hope when you visit realblindartist.com, you’ll see something that moves you. Come explore my galleries of impressionist landscapes, vibrant abstracts, and expressive pieces born from a life half-lit yet fully alive. Look with your heart. I promise the colors are still there.

I’m the Real Blind Artist, and I’m just getting started.