Not to Carolyn James, however. Left totally blind by a degenerative condition since her mid-twenties, her landscape watercolours have been receiving favourable reviews across Britain and other European countries. She not only serves as an outstanding example to all disabled people, but is recognised as an artist in her own right.

Her story, the subject of a biography by Andrew Whitehouse, entitled `Images from the Dark', is an inspiring one: courage, determination and what she calls her "inner vision'' enabled her to overcome suicidal depression and go on to attain spiritual -- and material -- success.

Ms James, vacationing at Cambridge Beaches, is already talking of a return visit, so that "I can try to capture the infinitesimal combinations of Bermuda's colours.'' This, since she was not born blind, is achieved partly through her memory of colour and form, and through her fiancee, Mr. Malcolm Hamlyn, who describes the scenes she cannot see.

"When we drove here from the airport in the fading light, I was in tears.

I couldn't believe what Malcolm was describing. It was so beautiful.'' Says Mr. Hamlyn, "It's as if she is having a vivid dream, but her `third' eye sees things based on what people tell her, the memory of what things look like and her very strong imagination.'' During her visit she has been to Beacon House to talk to the visually impaired, a task she says she is glad to undertake whenever and wherever she can, "because other handicapped people may take heart from what I have done, and go off and do their own thing.'' Much of her time, these days, is spent in giving what she refers to as "pep talks'' to handicapped people.

Carolyn James has been the recipient of Britain's annual Woman of the Year Award, and the subject of countless documentaries throughout Europe. In 1984, the first one, `I Can Hear You Smile,' won first prize for the BBC in the documentary category of the annual Royal Television Society Awards.

Just this year, a painting by the 50-year-old Englishwoman was featured in the annual calendar published by the Royal National Institute for the Blind.

Featuring work by artists who, at some time in their lives, have experienced problems with their vision, the calendar includes work by such giants as Impressionists Pissarro and Monet. Tucked between the two, is a watercolour by Carolyn James and this, she says, is perhaps the greatest honour of her career yet: "When that happened, I knew I must be a success. Nothing like that will ever happen to me again -- but it's been the most brilliant thing!'' Ms James, who suffers from retinitis pigmentosa , an inherited nervous disease, realises now that she must have started to lose her sight by the time she was six or seven.

"A tree was just a vague mass of green,'' she recalls. But at the time, she points out, she thought nothing of it because "I thought that was all anyone saw.'' She was sent to a normal school as her problem was not considered a serious one, but the bright teenager failed all her `O' levels.

"I knew all the work, but couldn't write it down. It was hard on my parents to have `a failure' on their hands and then have to face the fact that there was something wrong with me. For a long time I felt like the `black sheep' of the family.'' After a year at the Cordon Bleu cookery school, Ms James became a fashion model, "until my sight got so bad, I had to look down to see where my feet were -- not a good thing for a model to do!'' After that, it was the drudgery of a typing pool. An unsuccessful marriage at least brought her two children: "Then I got married again and that didn't last, either. I think it was difficult for other people to deal with my blindness. By that time, I could just see the outline of a person's head.

Unfortunately, some people thought I was making all this up.'' By that time experiencing overwhelming depression, Ms James says that her life began to change the day she started "doodling'' with some paints.

"I was just doing very abstract sort of things. Then I got hooked, and found I could forget everything while I was painting.'' Off she went, embarking on the journey of discovery that confronts every artist. "How could I get a particular light effect in the sky? Often, it was a process of elimination. I had to work everything out for myself.'' Her process is a painstaking one.

Using paper whose edges are specially notched so that she knows where she is applying each colour, her pictures are layered with about six applications of paint.

"Each picture, which is usually about 14 by 16 inches in size, takes about two weeks, but I have to build up the layers that give watercolours that kind of depth, then I will often use watercolour pencils to add texture.'' Some people, she says, see an oriental influence in her work, others speak of her expansive skies as being reminiscent of Turner.

People, she admits, are often shocked when they see her paintings. "My abstracts weren't too popular because I think that people who don't have much imagination, find abstracts troubling. So it was a sort of challenge to me to do something more realistic.'' She says that those who expect to see `child' art, with match-stick men, often have to eat their words.

Working non-stop, Ms James did 93 paintings in six months, and at her first exhibition, held in Scotland, sold two-thirds of them. Since then, she has exhibited in New York, Philadelphia, New Orleans and New Zealand.

"I was flabbergasted,'' she admits, recalling that at the time, she was driven to paint, as it was her salvation. "That's really how it all started.

But it was an awful lot of work, and it wore me out. Now, I don't do many exhibitions, but I occasionally do a joint show with someone. In the beginning, painting for me was strictly therapeutic, but now it's a great deal more pleasurable. I paint all the time.'' Much of her time now, however, is spent in working with disabled peoples' programmes and appearing frequently on TV, as her fame spreads across Europe.

"I think I have a quirky sort of humour, I make fun of myself. People seem quite surprised when I tell them that I paint in the dark in a cupboard -- and that's my studio!'' Ms James has also developed the commercial side of the art world, with her paintings being reproduced as greeting cards and also on T-shirts: "After all, I still have to live!'' she exclaims. These are exported as far afield as the US, Australia and the Far East.

It was her work with the disabled that brought Carolyn James and Malcolm Hamlyn together.

"I am a retired banker,'' he explains, "and was asked to become treasurer of the then newly formed Living Paintings Trust. They produce raised relief versions of paintings and sculptures. Together with an audio tape, they give visually impaired people an idea of what a piece of artwork is like. Carolyn was a trustee and that's how we met.'' He admits that some aspects of life with her still "take some getting used to. I can't get used to realising that if I turn off a light, she can still sit in a dark room getting on with her work. You don't turn a light out on a lady! Or going first through a door seems an ungentlemanly thing to do -- even though Carolyn needs me to guide her through!'' Carlyn James has adopted a philosophical attitude to a disability which she has brilliantly turned to success: "I'm not blind to beauty -- I just can't see. There are no miracles, no magic, no secrets, just a lot of hard work.'' STORY OF COURAGE -- Visiting Bermuda for a vacation break, blind artist Carolyn James is a leading role model for handicapped people in her native Britain. She is seen holding a copy of the book which tells her remarkable story, `Images in the Dark.'