Blind Alley Art

Blind Alley Art is the creation of Annie Fennymore who is blind...

Annie Fennymore has been registered blind for 21 years and she has her third Guide dog Mary as her constant companion. It was following a family tragedy that Annie turned to art and it has been only the last 7 years she developed her own form of tactile art. Using acrylic paints and raised mediums e.g. acrylic lava gel, sculpting pastes, even adhesive grouting she first marks out her planned subject with Blue Tack and then using the aforementioned she fills in the area giving her the shape she needs. Using her fingers she paints on her acrylic colours. She uses a brush only for backgrounds and larger canvases. She has too a selection of talking electronic aids for the blind one of which speaks out loud the colour of the tube of paint.

Her work has received good reviews from professional artists and in 2011 she won a highly commended award for her portrait of her then Guide dog Amber in the Helen Keller International Art Award which encouraged her to further develop her artwork. She founded and created Blind Alley Art and has gone on to show her work gaining more encouraging reviews including articles in 'The Lady Magazine', 'Essex Life'. She takes her work into schools and universities and works with children with disabilities, adults with learning difficulties and volunteers with Essex Sight, and Deaf/Blind U.K. Her first London exhibition at Sunbury Embroidery Gallery was funded and supported by Arts Council England, and she is also regularly invited to Westminster Forum which is a cross-party project where education, art, and eye health care is discussed in conferences and seminars. She gives talks and following her exhibition at Moorfields Eye Hospital she is now a regular speakr to the Moorfields Academy which is a body of people all involved in eye care and eye health.

In addition to giving talks Annie also demonstrates her methods and techniques which have been taken up by the art and craft teams for Blind Veterans, Brighton whom she recently visited; and through Essex Sight she now leads her 'Paint on…' monthly art groups for the visually impaired in Clacton on sea, and Colchester.

She supports Royal Marines Association, and one of her paintings 'Poppies' is now on sale as a greetings card from the Royal Marines Shop.com – all proceeds going to the association to support serving, injured and those in their later years.

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