Visble light is of wavelength 400 nm to 700 nm (i.e. 4x10^-7 m to 7x10^-7 m), which is much longer than the diameter of an atom (less than 10^-10 m ). As such, diffraction effect will be much pronounced and you will not be able to see these atoms.
This is similar to the situation that you cannot detect the presence of a book placed between you and a sound source just simply by hearing with your ears, because of the diffraction of sound wave (sound has a wavelength much longer than the dimension of a book).