The Process

After any showing or art venue, the question I'm asked most often is: "Okay, you're legally blind, how do you do this?"  I first start off by explaining my vision loss, which is my entire central vision.  It's skews color and depth perception.  I do have peripheral vision, which is lacking the acuity so I substitute that with contrast.  I try to focus on quadrants of the canvas, rotating in a clockwise position, working very close to the canvas until the picture is completed.  Many times I try to mix my own colors, and I come up with what I call "happy accidents."  It's not unheard of for one of my landscapes to contain purple trees. 
Depending on the size of the painting, and whether its a landscape, abstract or floral, it can take up to 8 weeks to complete a painting.  Many of the landscapes, I will go back to several times before they are totally finished. 

In  many cases, I can have up to three different paintings at the same time.  One can be a simple abstract (in which I focus on composition), a more intricate landscape, and a fun floral.  Depending on my mood, I can spend as much as three hours on each painting during each session.  I don't necessarily stick to these three genres, as my commissioned work has included animals, themes from music CDs, etc.  In other words, I change things up all the time.  It's never a dull moment when painting.