Although well-known local Moruya mouth painting artist Margaret Greig passed away over a year ago, she is remembered with a Christmas card in the Mouth and Foot Painting Artists range with one of her famous Australian bush paintings.
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Margaret was a member of the MFPA for nearly 50 years and learned to paint by holding the brush in her mouth in her mid-teens after contracting polio when she was just 13 years old.
Her Christmas card painting for this year is called 'Outback Christmas' and shows one of her unmistakable bush scenes. Your eyes are drawn into the picture by the meandering river with some unmistakable tall Australian eucalypts on the riverbank.
Margaret drew her inspiration for her famous Australian landscapes from the South Coast near her Moruya home, where she lived for a large proportion of her life.
Simon Jackson, Australian General Manager of the Mouth and Foot Painting Artists, said that they all still missed Margaret: "She is irreplaceable and was an inspiration to us all as an artist and a person. She was a devoted artist for more than fifty years and despite her disability was always smiling and positive in everything she did."
The world-wide Mouth and Foot Painting Artists was founded in 1956 by a group of European artists and today has approximately 850 members around the world.
They proudly describe themselves as a self-help organisation as it gives people with a disability the opportunity to fulfil their creative ambitions while maintaining financial independence by selectively selling their artworks. MFPA was established in Australia in 1971.
Members gain their income through the sale of their paintings or on products illustrated with their paintings. Phone (02) 9698 3933 or visit www.mfpa.com.au for more.
Other products include jumbo gift wrapping, special occasion cards, jigsaws, bone china mugs, address books, calendars, a very cute children's' Teddy Bear, colouring books, games, playing cards, serviettes, place mats and coasters, gift tags and wrapping paper. Several artists, including Margare, have also written and illustrated their own books.
An artist must qualify as a student member by painting using a brush held in their mouth or foot, having lost the use of their hands through an illness or accident.
Student members receive scholarships for art supplies and tuition.
Once an artist is judged to have reached a standard of competence they become a full member or associate and are guaranteed a salary for life, even if they are unable to continue painting.
