Three of blind artist Dawn Parkinson’s paintings have been selected to feature in the Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB) 2015 calendar.

Mrs Parkinson, of Hardwick Road in Dover, who was born with no vision in her right eye and poor sight in her left, has exhibited her sought-after work in London, Australia and America, inspiring other blind people to take up painting.

Registered blind, Mrs Parkinson has never let her disability stop her from doing what she enjoys, and with the help of a monocular and a magnifier she has been able to carry on painting.

This isn’t the first time her work has been used in the calendar, which raises money to help people with sight loss. In fact, she has contributed to it since it was founded. She has also designed RNIB Christmas cards and one of her paintings, of her late husband Tony and dog Sky walking in the snow, has raised more than £500,000 for the charity and is used in their ongoing appeal.

When the phone rang in August and it was the RNIB asking about a contribution to their calendar, Mrs Parkinson had to say she didn’t have enough time to paint anything new. Her paintings can take months if not years.

She could however give them three prints, two, which were about 10 years old, one which is of her famous Purple People, that has never been used in print.

Mrs Parkinson first starting painting her Purple People pieces more than 20 years ago. They are paintings of children on a beach taking part in different activities, including playing football or building a sandcastle. The one she has put forward for the calendar is called Look How High It Is, of two children flying their kites.

The other two paintings are The Bridge at Kearsney Abbey and Crabble Corn Mill Cottages.

She said: “I love Kearsney Abbey. My husband’s memorial tree is there.”

She added: “Monet had his bridge, and I’ve got mine. The colour of the trees I had to make up because I cannot see trees very well.”

On Crabble Corn Mill Cottages, she said: “It was a very hard painting to do, I will never do it again. I painted it mainly with my fingers, using light paint on dark. The windows were a nightmare to get them straight. It took days and days.”

Mrs Parkinson hopes these paintings will put Dover on the map. She also hopes the calendar will educate those with sight.

“Someone told me I couldn’t do it [art] and I thought in my head, watch this space. Lots of people think blind people can’t do things but they can.

The calendar features work of other blind artists including children and is only available to people who leave a legacy to the charity in their will.

Mrs Parkinson shared the fact that there are more than 3,000 people in Dover District who have sight loss with some 70% never leaving their homes.

She praises the charity for the service they provide to those with impaired sight.

Mrs Parkinson relies on many piece of equipment, which they have made her aware of, to help her with her everyday life including an auto phone, talking watch and talking microwave.

She plans for her next painting to be of a sunset over Dover, viewed from Connaught Park.