Just ask Middlemarch artist Vivienne Robertson who has been busy preparing to have her art featured in an unlikely exhibition space - a bull sale.
Ms Robertson's paintings will be on display, and for sale, at the Stoneburn Herefords and Waimara Angus sale at Andy Denham's Stoneburn farm, 20km west of Palmerston, on May 24.
About 16 paintings will be included and
were the result of ''a lot of intense work''.
''The smallest things are sometimes the most important, like an eye, a hoof, a buckle ... those things in the right place.''
She started drawing when she was about 6 and recalled lying on the lawn, drawing her pony's legs.
A keen horsewoman, Ms Robertson liked the spirit of the horse, painting its eyes and trying to capture its character. She always liked painting cattle, horses and sheep and people riding ''with the hat and the coat ... it all goes together, the tussocks and the rocks and the snow''.
She said she could not imagine life without painting which she mostly did in oils, with the occasional acrylic work.