Innovative Braille art gift to wife

Dunedin resident Julie Woods, also known as That Blind Woman, explores a blood-red tactile art work, titled Thicker than Water, created by her husband Ron Esplin as a form of Braille art. Photo by Linda Robertson.

Mr Esplin, a former city retailer and former president of the Dunedin Merchants Association, has been painting watercolours for the past 20 years.

In 2005, he created his first ''Braille art'' piece devoted to Ms Woods.

They married in 2011.

Mr Esplin and his wife were recently at the Robert Piggott Gallery, in Jetty St, to attend the opening of his ''A Portrait of Dunedin'' exhibition.

Launched at the same time was an illustrated book of the same name ''featuring almost 100 paintings of Dunedin'' painted over 20 years, he said.

And in another room at the gallery, he had mounted an unusual exhibition, titled ''Visions'', devoted to ''tactile'' or ''Braille'' art. That art ''honours my blind wife, Julie Woods'' and all others who were visually impaired.

He had pioneered a form of art he named ''Braille art'', which used elements of Braille and was ''accessible to both sighted and visually impaired viewers''.

''This idea was born from a desire to make a gift to my wife that was unique, and accessible to her despite her lack of sight.''