How the world looks to people who are colour blind - in pictures

Artist Lucy Burscough has painted a series of pictures on location at Manchester Royal Eye hospital portraying how the world looks to those with colour blindness. An exhibition of the pictures, Look 200, is on display at the hospital as part of the 8th Manchester Science Festival, which runs from 23 October to 2 November in over 40 venues across greater Manchester

All paintings by Lucy Burscough

  • Marie with notes

    Acrylic on canvas, 2014Marie works in the hospital’s Clinic H. The circles in the painting make reference to Ishihara tests that are used to check for colour blindness. The greenish circles describe the colour vision of people with deuteranopea or protanopea (red/green colour blindness).
    Marie with notes, acrylic on canvas, 2014

  • Gentleman with a Gold Tooth

    2014This portrait is a patient whom Lucy met when he had just been discharged after successful treatment. The colour difference in areas of this portrait relate to the discoveries of John Dalton – the first person to identify colour blindness as a disorder
    Gentleman with a Gold Tooth, 2014

  • The Lady with the Pearl Earrings

    2014This portrait is of one of the patients who enjoyed watching Lucy paint while she was waiting for an appointment. Look 200 was an Arts for Health programme that gave patients and staff an opportunity to relax.
    The Lady with the Pearl Earrings, 2014

  • A portrait of Manchester Royal Eye hospital’s dispensing optician, Steven Golding. The area inside Steven’s magnifier shows standard colour vision and the area outside describes the colour vision deficiency that John Dalton suffered from, deuteranopea.
    A portrait of MREH's dispensing optician, Steven Golding. The area inside Steven's magnifier shows standard colour vision and the area outside describes the colour vision deficiency that John Dalton suffered from, known as Deuteranopea
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