Her kaleidoscopic choice of colours extends across the rainbow spectrum and she works with the brightest of hues. Her patterns and stripes are embellished with cheery motifs: hearts, stars, flowers and smiling faces.

To's artworks won her many admirers at her small solo art show, for one night only, at the Helen Maxwell Gallery in Braddon on Monday.

The crowd of 60 who gathered to see her work marvelled at the detail, particularly astonished as To, 19, is legally blind.

She has a rare disease, septo-optic dysplasia, which means the nerves that connect her eyes to her brain are underdeveloped. To's sight will continue to deteriorate over time.

Her disease also causes dysfunction in her growth and development, and in some of her other capabilities. The disease is incurable and inoperable.

To, a Dickson College student, said to have her art hanging in a gallery made her feel ''really special and even more beautiful''.

''I just really like [my style] because it's really unique ... it makes me feel very happy.''

Her show featured five of her artworks a large cluster of 15 works and four single drawings. She works with ink markers on paper. One of her artworks sold for $250.

To admires the works of Spanish artist Pablo Picasso.

''It's really interesting how he does little cubes and breaks things up,'' she said.

To dreams of finding fame as an artist in the future. Her doctor and family friend, Thanh Toan Trinh, who attended the exhibition, thinks she has a bright future.

He said To had been a fighter since the age of two, maybe even younger. ''As her GP, it is very important for me to be optimistic about her future. Because of that, we try to think positively,'' he said.

It was Lizzie Wagner, the director of the Lizzie Wagner Group and also a friend of To and her family, who helped get the artworks into the gallery.

''It's all about confidence and self-esteem. She needed to realise that she is very talented and her work is beautiful. She has achieved her dream tonight.''