Can a painter evoke emotions in an observer of a painting, even if the artist cannot see color?

Belarusian couple Sergei and Irina Bondarevich think so, and have dedicated themselves to helping children realise their artistic dreams.

It all started with a casual family conversation. Sergei was talking to his son about 14th-century Belarusian prince Gediminas, when the boy responded that the name reminded him of a burger. 

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The boy's free association was manifestation synesthesia, a neurological condition in which information meant to stimulate one of your senses stimulates several of your senses.

Sergei struck upon the idea that one could experience color by hearing sounds, and from there the couple thought of how this idea could help congenitally blind children to paint. The foundations for the Likhtar app were laid.

How does it work? 

It takes a few days to create each picture. First Sergei and Irina discuss with the students the concept of the work, the message they'd like to convey, what colors and artistic expressions they’d like to use. After that, the picture is painted by blind students, who use the app to guide their brush.

This would have been near impossible several years ago. It is only with developments in mobile technology – and the couple's desire and ingenuity – that these children can transcend their disability.

Sergei, an expert in programming and design, developed a special device and a corresponding mobile application, helping children to determine the scale of their picture.

The technology is simple. A portable device, once held over a colour, transmits a reading to the mobile app, which in turn plays a musical note or series of notes to the students.

Each melody corresponds to each color so that the kids can feel the character of each color. Black sounds brutal and loud, red is energetic, yellow is chanting and melodic.

By combining colors, students can imagine how their work will be perceived and what feeling will be relayed to observers.

The Bondarevich family has belief in the students artistic potential. The children draw things they have never seen in their lives, but only felt, creating a form of emotional painting that can open up new creative horizons.

A successful exhibition

The couple aren't alone in their appreciation of the students' work. The paintings aren't just kept in classrooms – each is uploaded to social media and they have even put on an exhibition.

The exhibition proved to be a huge success. Despite the pandemic, hundreds of Belarusians, obeying social restrictions, came to view the students' work. The couple and the students were further delighted when visitors queued to buy their paintings.

Selling the work has been a core goal of the project. Blind people in Belarus and elsewhere have systematically found it harder to make a decent living, let alone having the opportunity to engage their creativity and talent.  

This is just the start. They plan to modernize the device making it available for visually impaired children not just in Belarus, but across the world. For the couple, every child has the right to see the world in full colour, no matter their disability.

That is why the device is named 'Likhtar,' which means flashlight in Belarusian – a ray of light that will help special children out of the dark.