The Cellar Image of the Day

Painter Esref Armagan is in a unique situation: he's been blind from birth, and yet, manages to produce these paintings that are accurate perceptions of reality.

From the biography section of his website:

Quote:

He needs absolute quiet when working. First, using a Braille stylus, he etches an outline of his drawing. He needs to feel that he is "inside" his painting-- in fact, when he is drawing a picture of the sea, he often wonders if he should wear a life jacket so as not drown! When he is satisfied with his drawing, he starts to apply the oils with his fingers. Because he applies only one color at a time (the colors would smear otherwise), he must wait two or three days for the color to dry before applying the next color. This method of painting is entirely unique to Mr. Armagan. He receives no assistance or training from any individual. He also learned to draw perspective.

He has also developed his own methods of doing portraits. He asks a sighted person to draw around a photograph, then he turns the paper over and feeling it with his left hand, he transfer what he feels onto another sheet of paper, later adding color. He has done portraits of the former first lady of Turkey, the current president and current prime minister.

Adapting a Ray Charles joke here:

Do you know why Esref is always smiling?

Because he can't see that his paintings suck.

Actually, I am impressed.

I would imagine over the years he has learned (been told) that pears (that he knows by touch and smell) are 'green' or 'yellow' and probably has his paints and palettes set up a certain way.

Possessed of synesthesia or not, if he has been blind from birth, how does he know what a watermelon looks like? Or that it's red on the inside, green on the outside, with little black seeds? I'm calling bullshit. Somehow. Somewhere.

That said, I can't paint for shit.

Probably from listening to stuff like
"O my Luve's like a red, red rose
That’s newly sprung in June; etc"

I agree with Gravdigr. How does a person blind from birth even understand the concept of color. Without a point of reference, can anyone explain the color blue?

Squirrel, Spudcon ... you two stay the #$%& out of my PhD thesis, okay? :death stare:

How do you perceive color? Because someone told you 'red' is red.

I don't think it's that farfetched to think someone told him what color things are, and that he organizes his paints in a way to use them. That's Blind 101.

Or maybe it's a big grand scheme. He's not REALLY blind, and he doesn't REALLY paint.

edit: at least no one cried 'shopped!

I don't think they need to understand the concept of color, as long as they know what colors other people perceive things as. In the world of color, it is like rote memorization...not creativity of color such as Van Gogh, and requiring a different kind of talent and tasking.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shawnee123

A lot of questions could be answered if he would consent to being videoed while painting or painting on a live show (quiet set of course).

Of course, if he is actually 100% blind, you may not need his permission at all to quietly set up the video camera

Yeah but, somewhere along the line somebody had to tell him what colors are, and where they go. Then had to supply the colored paints labeled for him to distinguish which is which. They also had to explain shadows. Oh, and that bananas are two colors.

That said, in doesn't take away from the fact that what he does is fucking amazing, even without color.

Quote:

Originally Posted by rditlkustoleit

Quote:

Originally Posted by classicman

I think it was in the movie Mr Holland's Opus. (maybe not)
But one person was explaining colors to another using alternate senses. IIRC (probably not) Blue was like a stone and red was something hot.... That sorta thing. Yes it was just a movie and I still don't get how it relates to painting.

Now I wonder why I even shared this. Oh well...