Blind artist on show with impressionists

Yet he is registered blind, with only "a sliver of sight" in his left eye, and that is impaired by a cataract.

Through a Glass Darkly is an apt title for his one-man exhibition hung alongside works by famous impressionists in the Long Gallery at Burton Agnes Hall, from April 5 to May 2.

Unusually visitors are being encouraged to touch the paintings – some built up so thickly in oils that they stand two or three inches proud of the canvas.

The son of a decorative plasterer, Sargeant was born in 1939 in Abergele, North Wales, where his mother had been evacuated from London during the war. He was born with a squint that was never corrected.

In 1975 a burst ulcer led to a loss of sight for months. Some sight returned in his left eye but that got progressively worse from the mid-80s.

Painting has always been part of his life, with the artist developing his own technique of blind-painting. Since 1995 he has exhibited widely and has paintings in the permanent collections of the National Library of Wales, House of Commons and the European Parliament in Brussels to name just a few.

"I have always had this need to paint, I drew as soon as I could walk," he said. "It was inherent, born in me, not taught.

"Once I start painting I lift up my spirit. I become me rather than a funny old bloke who walks about with a white stick like Mr Magoo."

The Beverley-based artist particularly likes being on the Westwood where the only danger he runs is being "bumped into by a cow or licked by a dog".

His wife of nearly 50 years, Val, lays out the primary colours and is a valued judge of his work.

He said: "I work very slowly because I can't see what I am doing. I work off the knowledge of having been in paint all my life and the perception of knowing my way round the canvas.

"I measure things, I always have done, with my body, so many hands like you'd measure a horse, a hand, then an arm, then a white stick.

"Val says to me: 'It's four times taller than you or six times', and that gives me a sense of scale."

Hall owner Simon Cunliffe-Lister said that although Burton Agnes was a 400-year-old house, its art was very modern and a living collection , so he was delighted to show the works.

He added it was "amazing" that someone registered as blind could produce such amazing paintings.