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Meet Greg McKinnon a partially blind artist who has less than 50% vision due to a childhood injury.
As a Canadian artist based in Vancouver BC, I am fortunate to have one of the most beautiful places in the world to live for inspiration. I have learned to love the morning mists on the waters of hidden lakes, to appreciate the haunting call of Loons, the majestic snow capped mountains and the crackle of leaves as I walk the forest trails. I find inspiration everywhere I go, amongst the coastal islands in a kayak, walking among the driftwood in secret coves and inlets, and with the creatures and birds that I encounter and briefly visit me on my travels. There is something truly special with being able to create a painting based on some of these experiences. What once was a blank canvas becomes my small world for a time and I get lost in trying to express my feelings through my brush. Many of these paintings are the result of five or six months of work as more often than not I am restricted to only a couple of hours of painting at a time due to serious headaches from eye strain. How much longer I can continue to paint is unknown.
Greg is a totally self taught artist who picked up a paintbrush for the first time only four short years ago from a hospital bed. After a serious health issues he decided to dedicate his remaining years to painting and to trying to enjoy life to it's fullest. “I’d love to be remembered as an artist, and someone who tried to make the world a more beautiful and better place through my art.”
"When I paint these images, I make them real. I can touch them. I make my dreams real. By making my dreams come true through art, I make my living dreams come true. I do hope you like my work.”
Four short years ago when Greg first started painting, several of his friends commented that he was "really good". Wondering if he was he decided to apply to The Federation of Canadian Artists in Vancouver to see if this was indeed true. He was immediately accepted as an active member and given a certificate for outstanding artwork.
Blind artists are people who are physically unable to see normally, yet work in the visual arts. This seeming contradiction is overcome when one understands that only around 10% of all blind people can see absolutely nothing at all. As such most blind people can in fact perceive some level of light and form, and it is by applying this limited vision that many blind artists create intelligible art. Also, a blind person may once have been fully sighted and yet simply lost part of their vision through injury or illness.
Famous Painters who had vision problems:
Claude Monet (1840–1926): Developed severe cataracts, which shifted his color palette toward muddy, red, and yellow tones in his later Water Lilies series.
Edgar Degas (1834–1917): Suffered from progressive retinal disease, causing him to shift from detailed painting to broader, less precise pastels and sculpture.
Auguste Renoir (1841–1919): Experienced severe myopia, which he believed helped him embrace blurred, impressionistic landscapes rather than sharp details.
Pablo Picasso (1881- 1973): Suffered from strabismus, a misalignment of the eyes, and potentially had poor depth perception, which some suggest influenced his unique, cubist perspective.
Binod Behari Mukherjee (1904–1980): An Indian artist who was blind in one eye and highly myopic in the other, he created famous murals even after losing his remaining vision.
Giovanni Gonnelli (1600s): A blind Italian sculptor who modeled portraits by touch.
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