Varsha’s voice bubbles with excitement as she shares her feelings about experiencing a painting for the first time. “I have seen a dog, swan, sun, moon, flowers and birds,” she says. A visually impaired person, she describes with glee everyday objects most of us take for granted.

At a little distance from her were about 20 paintings created with primary colours and scenes from nature but with tactile quality.

The painting exhibition was organised by L.V. Prasad Eye Institute on its premises on Tuesday to create awareness about leisure and recreation among the visually impaired. The paintings were three-dimensional and could be touched and felt.

“We wanted to motivate the children and realised that paintings are a creative way to do that. We organised a workshop and worked with colours and shapes. One of the boys was congenitally blind and didn’t know colours, so I explained to him about colours as emotions and the result was these tactile paintings,” says T.V. Aishwarya, who works at LVPEI Rehabilitation Institute.

For Namira Samreen, the excitement of showing her creation and explaining how she did it was palpable. “I used aluminium foil to create shapes and we stuck them to the canvas with glue. I have painted sky, sun, two trees, birds and a house,” says the young girl from Kalyan Nagar.