Sam Fryer talks to Bucks artist Romeo Di Girolamo about his work with a charity which helps partially sighted people to paint

ARTIST Cavaliere Romeo Di Girolamo is taking up the Fight for Sight to encourage people to see that art is for everyone.

Romeo, who lives near Wendover, is now President of the Royal Society of British Artists and has adopted the charity Fight for Sight during his five years in office.

Fight for Sight is the UK's leading charity in the battle against blindness. It raises funds for research into the prevention of blindness and treatment of eye disease.

In its latest fund-raising campaign, Fight for Sight is focusing on the visual arts with Art for Sight's Sake -- holding art exhibitions and sales in aid of their work.

Romeo first heard about Fight for Sight and its Art for Sight's Sake campaign, when he saw a leaflet about the charity, with a letter in it from Jan Leeming, who is also supporting their work.

"I read it and thought it was a wonderful idea of theirs to encourage partially sighted people to paint. It is wonderful when they see their work up in an exhibition next to the work of other artists," he explains.

Romeo also has more personal reasons for supporting the work of Fight for Sight. He says: "The main reason for adopting the charity is that my elderly mother suffered firstly from cataracts and then from glaucoma and the people at the hospital were wonderful.

"It is awful for anyone to lose their sight, but being an artist it is an absolute nightmare."

Romeo came to England from Italy at the age of ten when his late step-father, an ex-prisoner of war, brought the family to Quainton. Romeo studied at High Wycombe School of Art and has lived in Nash Lee Lane, Wendover since 1970. When he was just 19, he made his debut at the Royal Academy. He became head of the School of Art and Design in Amersham at the age of 36.

Romeo feels very strongly about supporting local artists and the local area and hopes that through this fund-raising he might be able to do this.

He explains: "I firmly believe in putting something back into the community and as soon as I read about it I thought maybe I could do something for them."

Fight for Sight has very strong links with Buckinghamshire and the charity is even thinking about trying to establish a local group in the area. Another Buckinghamshire patron of the Arts Lord Carrington, who lives in Bledlow, is the president of Fight for Sight.

He held an open garden at his house in June, which was attended by many supporters of the charity including Jan Leeming. Local artists and crafts people exhibited and sold their work in aid of the Art for Sight's Sake campaign.

Romeo says: "It is nice that a couple of Buckinghamshire people are trying to do something like this and put something back."

Romeo is currently busy organising his first event in aid of the charity The Annual Open Exhibition of the Royal Society of British Artists at the Mall Galleries in London.

Around 400 works will go on display and the exhibition is to be opened by Jan Leeming.

His plans for an events evening to raise money for the charity are also going ahead despite the chaos caused by a fire at the Fight for Sight headquarters in London, which left the building completely destroyed this month.

Over the past two years Fight for Sight has provided £1.2 million for research and specialised equipment and is committed to projects costing £2.5 million over the next five years.

Romeo adds: "I am really looking forward to working out programmes of exhibitions and events to support Fight for Sight."

The Annual Open Exhibition of the Royal Society of British Artists is being held at The Mall Galleries, London, SW1, from September 22 to October 4

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