Marion has always loved the outdoor life and nature. This with her profession as a Biology teacher was an enjoyable career. The onset of Atypical Spinal Muscular Atrophy brought all of this slowly to a halt.

Now, confined to an electric wheelchair for the past 15 years, she expresses her love for the outdoor through landscape painting. Marion was inspired after meeting a foot painting artist at a Rehabilitation Hospital and was encouraged to try painting by mouth.

Marion was accepted as a student member of MFPA in 1996 and with their support and a lot of hard work, now enjoys a satisfying and challenging new vocation.

Marion lives with husband Roy in Bunbury, a small city south of Perth in Western Australia.

Cathy lives in Port Macquarie and is married with one son. She was born with cerebral palsy, and like most MFPA artists, found mouth painting a difficult skill to learn but was determined to develop her artistic talent. Cathy was initially trained in art by a school teacher and has since undertaken formal tuition. 

She was accepted by MFPA as a student member in 1979 and is well known for her former Christmas designs on MFPA greeting cards.

In 1982, Simon became a quadriplegic when he broke his neck after falling off a roof in the central Victorian town of Castlemaine. 

Before the fall, Simon was a landscape gardener and the superintendent of grounds at the Alexander Home and Hospital in Castlemaine.

Simon visited MFPA member Bill Mooney, on his first trip out of the Austin Hospital in Melbourne, who encouraged him to try mouth painting. He tried painting with his mouth but became very frustrated with the technique and went into computer-aided design, mainly for landscaping, for a few years but eventually returned to mouth painting, which he believes is more satisfying.

In 1990, Simon was awarded the MFPA student membership.

He moved to Longford, Tasmania in 1996 where he continues to paint and still considers Bill as his inspiration.

Bill Mooney was born on February 11th 1942 in Melbourne Australia. A promising young athlete, Bill was paralized from the shoulders down as the result of a diving accident at the age of sixteen. He has been confined to a wheelchair since that time.

Bill began painting in 1960 and spent about six month tinting old etchings of Australia. He then had a very successful exhibition of his work at the Melbourne headquarters of a large banking company. Bill started producing his own work in late 1961 and spent the next two years working on exercises and general lessons given by his teachers at the small art colony of Eltham outside Melbourne. During this time he was accepted as a student by the MFPA and later in 1963 became a full member.

In the same year Bill was married to Irene, a young Scottish nurse at the hospital where he stayed. They set up home in a suburb of Melbourne and have three children, now young adults, who bring them much happiness. Since then Bill has been painting full time, and over the years has exhibited and sold paintings throughout the world. His paintings, in oils and watercolours, are usually of Australian landscapes or seascapes.

Bill takes a keen interest in world politics, all sports, and loves to travel. He takes part in many Exhibitions and Art Shows, winning the prestigious Hebe Ransford Landscape Award at the Royal Melbourne Show in 1997. Being a member of MFPA has given Bill financial security, the opportunity to travel overseas and meet many interesting people, and in spite of his accident he considers himself a happy and fortunate man.

Monica first became aware of MFPA when she attended an art exhibition in 1989. She started mouth painting a few years prior to this and was encouraged to apply for MFPA membership after seeing the quality of the artist’s work.

As a result, Monica was accepted as an MFPA student member in 1990 and has since held several successful exhibitions in Fremantle.

Monica was born without limbs, and started painting using oils on silk, which is still her favourite medium. She mainly paints landscapes and has attempted a few seascapes. Monica lives in the southern suburbs of Perth.

Jim Hodkinson was born on 7 September 1949 in Manchester (England). He came to Australia when he was 10. He married at the age of 20 and had two children. At the age of 23, Jim had an accident which left him quadriplegic and resulted a hospital stay of two years. 

For the next 9 years he lived in a residence belonging to Lidcombe Hospital. Jim uses an electric wheelchair which allows him to be very independent. Shortly after his accident, Jim for the first time tried to paint, holding a pencil in his mouth. He liked it very much and from then strove on to further develop his artistic talent. The mouthpainter has had several exhibitions.

Today the mouthpainter lives in the south western suburbs of Sydney and is an Associate member.

Beryl has cerebral palsy and has been interested in art since she was a child.

Beryl was improving her mouth painting techniques at art school when a teacher encouraged her to approach MFPA and as a result, she became a student member in 1979.

Portraits are Beryl’s favourite subject, and she lives in the western suburbs of Sydney.

A serious car accident left Vinh a quadriplegic in 1980. While in rehabilitation, he decided to teach himself to mouth paint as he needed to find an interesting hobby.

While mastering this technique, he met full MFPA member, Bill Mooney, who gave him some instruction. Vinh’s work improved significantly and he was accepted as a MFPA student member in 1991.

Vinh lives in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne.

Margaret Greig has been a happy member of the Mouth and Foot Painting Artists since 1970. Margaret contracted polio in 1959 and became a quadriplegic. She has been painting by mouth since her mid-teens and finds even more richness in painting now than when she first began to discover the quality of life through art.

She has participated in many Australian and overseas exhibitions and demonstrated in shopping centres and to groups interested in the work of MFPA.

Margaret was brought up on a farm before her illness and has a love of all animals, particularly horses and cows and they have been the subject of many paintings. Most of her paintings are of country scenes and flowers. Her other interests include her church, and she purchased a fourteen seat bus equipped with a wheelchair hoist which is used for taking elderly and disabled people on outings.

Other interests include computers, watching sport, keeping miniature ponies and travelling at every opportunity.

Mouth painting became Pam’s new hobby after she was no longer able to play sport due to her physical condition.

Pam suffers from a rare neurological disease known as polyneuropathy which is a peripheral nerve disorder, and it is believed that the immune system attacks the nerves. In Pam’s case, this auto-immune disease has damaged the motor nerves in her arms and legs.

Pam skilfully taught herself to paint and she was recognised by MFPA as a student member in 1989. She has also completed a Bachelor of Arts majoring in Psychology, Visual Arts and Anthropology, and has a Graduate Diploma of Behavioural Health Care.

Pam’s vibrant style of painting incorporates animals, humour and country themes and currently resides in a small Victorian country village called Linton, just west of Ballarat.