Since she was a child Susie Matthais has been painting beautiful pictures. That wouldn’t seem unusual -- except for the fact that Matthais has hands, but no arms. She places her paintbrush in her mouth to create her accomplished works of art.

“My parents encouraged me to paint. I’m glad they did. Now I’m able to be financially independent with my art,” Matthais said on Friday on CTV’s Canada AM.

Amanda Orichefsky, a graduate of the Fine Arts Animation program at Toronto’s George Brown College, also uses the same technique to create her impressive paintings.

“I started out at 13 making stick people,” Orichefsky, 23, said on Canada AM.

“It was difficult, but my mom pushed me to do everything myself,” said Orichefsky, who has arms and hands but cannot use them.

Matthais and Orichefsky are members of an organization called the Mouth and Foot Painting Artists (MFPA) association.

In their latest project, six Canadian members of MFPA have come together to work on one canvas. The project, called “Canvassing the Country: A Moving, Canadian Art Story,” features regional scene that have been contributed by each artist.

The inspirational canvas has been travelling across Canada since April of 2012, including such destinations as Cloverdale, B.C., Edmonton, Alta., London, Ont., Saint-Foy, Que., and Halifax, N.S. The tour is currently finishing up in Scarborough, Ont.

“Our goal is to promote awareness and to let people know that despite our disabilities we can be financially independent through our work,” said Matthais, a Thalidomide victim who lives in London. Ont.

Scarborough, Ont.-native Orichefsky was diagnosed with Arthrogryposis at birth, a rare congenital disorder that is characterized by multiple joint contractures and can include muscle weakness and fibrosis.

For these artists, and others like them, MFPA has played an inestimable role in their lives.

Formed in 1956, the roots of MFPA go back to Erich Stegmann, a polio-stricken mouth painter who gathered a small band of disabled artists from eight European countries.

Like many disabled people today, Stegmann and his colleagues disliked being pitied because of their physical limitations.  Their goal was to earn a living through their art and to obtain a level of work security that had, until then, eluded them because of disabilities incurred either at birth or through accident or illness.

Today, the international, for-profit group headquartered in Liechtenstein is owned and run by disabled artists to help them meet their financial needs. MFPA has also grown to represent 750 members from more than 75 countries around the world.

The organization has operated in Canada since 1961, and currently has members located in Nova Scotia, Quebec, Ontario and British Columbia.

Five decades later, the organization’s motto in Canada remains the same: “Self Help -- Not Charity.”