SIGHT is the most precious of all the senses to an artist, but local artist Ursula Bayer, whose work is currently on display at Ludlow Assembly Rooms, is in danger of losing hers.

Born and brought up in Germany, Ursula knew, from the age of two, that she wanted to be a painter. Her father was a self-taught painter and her earliest memories are of playing in his studio, where she was given crayons and paper and scraps of material to play with, but never canvas, because, as her father said, “women don’t become artists”.

“I’ll show you”, she thought, and as time went by, she did. Ursula has become a high-profile artist, with her father declaring before his death that he would be a footnote in art history, way below his illustrious daughter.

In 2006 Ursula fulfilled a long-held ambition to live and, like Matisse, work in the bright light of the African sun. In the same year she noticed, as her father had, that her sight was failing, and she was diagnosed with a hereditary condition affecting the corneas. The sight in her left eye had almost completely gone and her right eye was failing. However medical science has advanced since her father’s time, and the doctors told her that a corneal transplant was possible.

Ursula had to wait a year for a suitable donor, and a transplant was carried out on her left eye last December. She reports, “my eyesight is progressing, and most importantly it has allowed me to continue to paint. Oddly, though, each eye perceives colours differently”.

Ursula now divides her time between Morocco and Knighton, painting pictures of the eternal issues of birth, love and death. As she puts it, “I paint to bring joy to life and the colours on my canvases are like stained glass, golds and yellows to lift the soul”. She has had 14 solo exhibitions in the UK, Europe and Africa and her work is displayed in highprofile galleries, and on the Saatchi website (saatchi-gallery.co.uk).

Ursula’s work can be seen at Ludlow Assembly Rooms until Sunday, January 17. Admission is free.