Feeling the picture

His work is admired by the likes of Kingsley Amis, Robin Day and John Betjeman. Sargy Mann, the artist who lost his sight in one eye at the age of 14 — and who is now virtually blind — is to host a new show of his most recent work.

Sargy, now 66 and living in Suffolk, always paints his vivid post-Impressionist pictures outdoors if he can, because he needs the brightest possible light to work by. He only has peripheral vision in one eye, but thirty years of painting and observing have left him well prepared to make the best use of it.

Sargy works by exploring his subject with a small telescope and talking into a tape recorder — his audio sketchbook. He says that when he has been working on a canvass for a long time he feels as if he can see it. But he admits the process can be very unreliable, as he tends to see what he thinks he has painted and not necessarily what he actually has.

Such a self-deprecatory observation is typical of Sargy’s upbeat attitude. "People's first reaction is how terrible for a painter to lose his sight," he says. "But the opposite is the truth. It fires your creativity and imagination and teaches you to be more inventive." One of his very few regrets is having to give up lecturing at Camberwell Arts School, where he was known as 'inspirational'.

Sargy's show will feature vibrant and colourful work such as Lunch on the Centro Terrace, Frances in the Hammock by the River and Bathers, Borgo Pace, giving a refreshing, summery and uplifting experience.