Done byDone by: : Students of 9 «А» formValeriya Komarova andAnastasiya Altynina

Esref Armagan is a very unusual Turkish painter. His artwork has been exhibited in Turkey and abroad. A framed thank you letter from Bill Clinton is hanging in his apartment in Turkey because Esref painted his portrait. A lot of newspaper articles were written about him and he has appeared on Turkish television as well as CNN and BBC. Everyone is touched and awed by the freedom of light in his paintings and the depth of his colors.

Eşref Armağan (born in 1953) is a blind painter of Turkish origin. He was born both unsighted to an impoverished family. As a child and young adult he never received any formal schooling or training. He taught himself to write and print. He draws and paints by using his hands. Mr. Armagan has been perfecting his art for the past thirty-five years.

Esref is a blind painter. He is blind from birth. He has never been able to see nor understand colors. He has never been able to see the magic light of sunset nor the beauty of a flowering meadow in the spring. The stubborn persistence mixed with his unique genius has given Esref the chance to express himself and "the eyes to see with."

At 6 he began to draw with pencil and later he started painting with oil paints on poster paper. He found this technique to be too time consuming. After having painted one color, he'd have to wait a couple of days for the oil to dry before he could begin with the next color.

Ten years ago Esref discovered that acrylics dry quickly and that he could paint. He started painting for his own pleasure: for his curiosity and for the satisfaction of the things he could create. His hands are his 'eyes'.

When he draws for others, he uses his right hand. He traces lines and makes impressions on a piece of paper. At the same time, he feels his traced lines with his left hand. When he paints, he puts the colors, which are lined up in a particular order so that he can always find the right one desired.

He needs absolute quiet when working. First, using a Braille stylus, he etches an outline of his drawing. He needs to feel that he is "inside" his painting - for example, when he is drawing a picture of the sea, he often wonders if he should wear a life jacket so as not to drown. When he is satisfied with his drawing, he starts to apply the oils with his fingers.

He has also developed his own methods of doing portraits. He asks a person to bring a photograph. Then he turns the paper over and feeling it with his left hand, he transfers what he feels onto another sheet of paper, adding colors later. He has done portraits of the former first lady of Turkey, the current president and current prime minister.

Opththalmologists, neuro-opththalmologists, neuro-psychiatrists wanted to analyze his unique case. They '' held be skeptical: It's impossible!, "There must be some trick!", "There has to be somebody who helps him secretly!", "Maybe he's not really blind from birth!"

Specialists that met him were confused by Esref's capacities. "He moves and represents space with ease, his details are precise and full of visible information (color variation, shadows, light and shade effects, light reflection, contrasts and perspective).

He had exhibits in many cities in Turkey as well as in New York, Chicago, Shanghai, Italy, the Czech Republic, Rotterdam and Northern Cyprus. Last year he visited Harvard and was Turkey's only representative at the VSArts Festival (the equivalent of Special Olympics and also sponsored by the Kennedy family) in Washington, DC. Documentaries were made by the British, Turks, Koreans and Americans.

In 2009 Armağan was invited by Volvo to paint the new model S60. As it was not meant for a TV-commercial, more of a community "PR-trick", Volvo made a series of documentaries, posted on Volvo's Facebook page, where Armağan paints the S60, as well as single parts, wished by the community. The painting was for sale on Ebay, and sold for US $3,050. The Canadian non-profit charity organization World Blind Union (WBU) was the benefactor of the auction.

Resourses:

www.esref-armagan.com