My life is pretty miraculous!

TV icon Gretel Killeen’s world is exploding in colourful joy after discovering a hidden talent for painting to beat the lockdown blues

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With her naturally grey locks generating plenty of flattering compliments from the opposite sex and a burgeoning new career as an artist, former Big Brother host Gretel Killeen has never been more comfortable in her own skin.

When the pandemic hit in March last year, Gretel, 58, came up with her own “lockdown do-list” which included learning Italian, building a farm on the balcony of her apartment in Sydney’s inner-city, and trying to paint.

She doesn’t speak like a native of Rome and the harvest from her balcony won’t stop famine in the world, but the single mum of two adult kids has become an artist in her own right, showing her colorful paintings in galleries and even taking private commissions.

“The last piece of art I created, prior to my current renaissance, was a witch hand puppet I made in 1969 using papier mache and an old purple tea towel (for the cape of course),” Gretel happily admits of her new career.

She’s certainly graduated to bigger and better art projects, and earlier this year even entered a self-portrait, which she described as looking more like “my daughter’s puppy than me”, in the prestigious Archibald Prize.

FOLLOWING HER DREAM