MARGARET Rees, Balnarring, Victoria, has made a name for herself as the local “cow lady”, after seven years of creating oil paintings of different breeds of cows.
Ms Rees doesn’t come from a farming background, nor does she live on a farm today, but she has fallen in love with cows, and spends most of her time painting them.
She moved to Balnarring from Dandenong 16 years ago with husband Derryck, when they bought a local hotel.
“We used this house that we’re currently in as a part of the hotel, if we ever had overflow, or families, they would stay here,” she said.
“When we sold the business, we thought we’d move into this house temporarily, but we’ve been here ever since.”
When they were on the verge of selling the business, Margaret decided to take up painting.
“I’ve always done a lot of art and craft, but I didn’t start learning to paint until we were retiring,” she said.
“I went to a dear artist friend in Bittern to learn to paint, and had lessons every week for about two and a half years.”
She said at the start she would paint anything she could, doing paintings of flowers and portraits of children and dogs, until she fell in love with a small herd of Simmentals.
”There was a small farm in Balnarring that was being sold, and we went down to the auction to have a look,” she said.
“These beautiful Simmental cows were in the paddock near the house, and I always take my camera with me wherever I go, so I took some photos of them.
“This was my first cow painting, and that was six or seven years ago, and I’ve done about 75 cow paintings since.”
She said to get photos of cows she wishes to paint, one of her favourite things to do is go “cow spotting”.
“I love driving around looking for cows, and getting out to take photos,” she said.
“I love taking the photos, I talk to the cows, they’re interested in you, they all come so close.
“Some people say all cows look the same, but they don’t, they’re all different, just like people.”
