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THE theme of the inaugural Rochester Mural Festival, "ride like the wind," has challenged and inspired participating artists in equal measure.
For Perth's Paul Scott the task was almost enough to keep him up at night.
"I hadn't been to Victoria before, other than the airport, so I got onto Google and read up about Rochester and the floods and the hotel that exploded and the agricultural side of things and Hubert Opperman and I was just lying in bed one night and the cow on the bike just dawned on me," he said.
"So he’s inspired by Oppy and while the farmer's gone to town to do his banking the farm dog and the cow have banded together and picked up an old rusty bike.
"I'm hoping to put some Band-Aids on the tires and have the rusty old bike like it's been sitting there for a long time and they're training up to enter the bike race that comes out of Rochester."
At the other end of the spectrum, inspiration struck for Healesville's Lynette Orzlowski almost immediately.
"The first initial concept that I got was horses because I'm around horses all the time, my daughter rides horses and I'm always at competitions or taking horse photography," she said.
"This last year I've also decided to become an equine artist, painting all type of horses whether it be heavy drought, race horses, ponies, you name it, everything to do with horses."
Susan Greentree, of Georgetown in South Australia, took a more circumspect approach.
"A lot of thought goes into creating something along a theme," she said.
"I wanted to create something that drew the viewer into the picture and got that sense of movement through that vast landscape and what better way than riding horses. So I've placed the viewer on the back of the second horse so they can ride into the picture and experience that exhilaration of the wind blowing in their hair."
The murals will be on display for the next 12 months.
For more photos visit www.bendigoadvertiser.com.au