Colour blind artist in great company!

How does one stand out in a world full of successful artists? Marketing people will say you need to find your USP or unique selling point. Mine? Being profoundly colour blind.

Can you see the number in the image here? No? Then, like me, you're probably colour blind. Colour blindness can come in a variety of forms including red-green (the most common); blue-yellow and monochromatic. Then there is me! My colour blindness appears to be a mixture of a problem with my eyes but also my brain. Rather bizarrely, I don't seem to be able to recognise most colours except really bold primary ones. Mixed colours completely confuse me and I'm unable to even suggest the name of a colour in many cases. However, I do still see in colour but possibly not quite in the way that you do.

There is no cure for colour blindness despite the ridiculous adverts one sees on the internet. The most awful of these are the correction glasses from Enchroma. They show clips of apparently colour blind people being given the gift of perfect sight with a pair of sunglasses. Thankfully science has stepped in to debunk these nonsense colour vision correction glasses.

So can I really be an artist with such a condition? Well, I'd argue that the proof is clear. Having been a selling artist for little more than a year I've sold 30 pieces. Many were commissions and the client knew I was colour blind. It's become my USP.

Of course, there are plenty of artists out there who are colour blind and some notable greats included. It's believed that as Monet developed cataracts his colour vision failed and even Vincent Van Gogh was thought to be afflicted.

If you're interested in Understanding colour blindness a bit more this link will get you started. Of course you can also ask me.

Can't see the number? You're probably colour blind!