Janet Bell. Aged 75 and currently retired. I studied painting in the 1960’s at a London Art school. During my career I have taught painting and drawing, been an art inspector of Schools and my last employment was as Deputy Director of a Local Authority Education Department with responsibility for Post  16 education, staff training, libraries, Theatres and Arts. 

I have lost some vision in my right eye resulting from age related Macula Degeneration. It started in April 2019. I awoke one morning whilst in Italy having lost the vision almost totally in my right eye. I unfortunately left it for about 4 days thinking it would rectify, before I talked with a doctor friend who then took me directly to hospital where it was diagnosed. 

Thanks to immediate treatment and excellent care I have regained bit by bit some considerable sight. It can vary a bit throughout the day, depending on my level of tiredness I think. I see the world clearly through both eyes but through the affected eye the colour is somewhat monochromatic, there is movement of objects and the vision is blurred. It is most severe when I am tired. Hence my paintings are about the visual experience of two eyes and then with the damaged eye painting the same subject. When producing these paintings, I was surprised by the experience. In both paintings I worked from the same still life setup, used the identical colour palate and painted at the same time of day. I found it easier to see the still life than I had expected although blurred and with less colour but found it very difficult to see either the palate or the canvas, being nearer to me. As I had painted the painting with both eyes first I don’t know how much knowledge of the colour and form I was using and thus not being totally reliant on my vision. 

 Other than the description of painting being a bit problematic the other daily problem I have encountered is judging distance when things are close to me e.g. pouring liquid into a glass , I have had to learn strategies to find out where the front edge is to avoid countless spills. It is the same when cooking and sewing. I seem to have less trouble with distance when things are further away. If the light is good, distant landscapes seem less affected by blurred vision or colour draining. I would enjoy talking to others about how they deal with similar situations. However what I learnt from listening to people on our team zoom call, is that all cases seemed so different. 

I look forward to exhibiting with other painters and to discuss their approach to their work and the strategies they use for overcoming specific problems.   As well as further understanding as to how other painters cope with a range of eye conditions and also how people with perfect vision see my paintings and the differences.

Related conditions: