41-year-old Huang Guofu, from Chongqing, China, has learned to master the paintbrush with his mouth and right foot, after he lost both his hands in a childhood accident.

Huang Guofu lost his arms in terrible electric shock accident, at the tender age of four, but that didn’t stop him from following his dreams, and at age 12 he began painting with his feet. The talented artist remembers that in the beginning, his artworks didn’t look at all like what he intended to paint, but as the years went by his skills improved considerably. Huang quit his studies when he was 18, as his father was very ill and he needed to make money for his treatments. He started travelling to other Chinese cities, creating beautiful paintings on the side of streets and selling them to passers-by.

It was during his art travels that he began using his mouth to paint, after hearing some comments that painting with one’s leg isn’t very elegant. He put a brush in his mouth and started painting. During a trip to a city in China’s Sichuan Province, Huang Guofu met Hu Guoui, a woman who quickly fell in love with his strong will and artistic talents, and the two got married in 2000. Since then, she has become his assistant, carrying his canvas and tools, whenever he needs to paint a scene on location.

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48-year-old Peter Longstaff is living proof that ambition and hope can overcome pretty much anything. Although he is armless, he manages to create artworks most of us couldn’t paint with three hands.

Ever since he can remember has had get around using only his feet. He had the misfortune of being born in a time when mothers were given thalidomide, a drug that alleviated morning sickness. But it also caused serious deformities in newborns and Peter was seriously affected by it.

Fortunately, this serious handicap didn’t affect the artist’s ambition and, starting from an early age, he figured out how to get things done with his feet. Now he says his right foot is like a normal person’s right hand. He can operate switches, open doors, all while gracefully balancing on just one leg.

Before embracing art, Peter Longstaff worked on a pig farm where he had to drive tractors, stack hay and handle the animals. He didn’t leave because work got too much for him, but because the market was getting to crowded. He retired and turned to art. He quickly enlisted in a movement called “Mouth and Foot Painting Artists”, as a student, and now his works are displayed all over the world.

Peter specializes in landscape paintings and also makes Christmas cards. His works are on display at the Picturecraft Gallery in Holt, Britain, from Friday till Christmas Eve.

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