I am a 60yr old retired woman who resides on the Gold Coast, Queensland. My husband has recently retired and I have 2 sons in their early 20's. Being an older mum I decided to be a stay at home mum and did alot of volunteering at their primary school helping out with reading daily and whatever else they needed. One of their teachers use to do pastel pictures which I greatly admired, and she gave me a gift voucher for a free lesson to thank me for my help. As a result I found something I love doing in my spare time. Pastels are quite expensive because of the cost of framing the artwork so about 5 years ago I started painting with oil paints which I absolutely love. I also purchased a camera with a good zoom so I could get alot of detail in my paintings and my favourite subjects are the birds in my yard/neighbourhood. Each artwork takes me a number of months to complete. I attend a weekly local art class with a like minded group of mainly retired people and have been painting as a hobby for about 12 years.