Kelly Kirkwood doesn't profess to know ''loads about art'', even though the walls of her home are covered in it.
''I'm not interested in if someone's collectable,'' she says.
''I buy something because I love it or it reminds me of something.''
Having inherited the art-collecting ''bug'' from her late mother, Mrs Kirkwood has a diverse collection that includes everything from a dreamy Dalene Meiring landscape to an arresting portrait by Stephen Martyn Welch.
Other pieces have stories associated with them.
A painting of a soldier by New Zealand Army artist Matt Gauldie reminds her of her grandfather who fought in World War 2, while Maniototo by Simon Morrison-Deaker depicts the area where she and husband Greg have three dairy farms.
Now the walls are almost full, she is also collecting sculpture.
Mrs Kirkwood, whose 10-year-old twins also enjoy going to exhibitions, thinks many people are intimidated about going into galleries: ''They feel they need to know about art and be able to verbalise it when talking to gallery owners when actually it's not like that at all.''
And she says there are ''cheap ways of putting things together'' when money is an issue, recalling the time she saw an exhibition in Auckland, bought a poster from it and mounted it on board.
Most purchases are considered but occasionally she has bought on impulse.
Recently she was heading to the bank but didn't make it after stopping at Milford Galleries on the way and buying a painting by J. S. Parker.
''We'd paid the airfare for one of our staff to get from the Philippines to New Zealand and he paid us back in cash ... so out came the deposit.''
