“It tested me morally, but everyone’s money is the same”: why artist Lottie Rae said no to a supermodel

It was a chilly early morning last July when Lottie Rae’s career skyrocketed in the most unexpected way.

Lying in bed in her home in Trangie, New South Wales — population 1073 — the artist was squinting with one eye as she opened her Instagram and, unusually, tapped on her spam message inbox. At the top of the messages, a name stood out from the rest: Gigi Hadid, the Victoria’s Secret supermodel and social media icon.

“I thought it was definitely a fake account,” Lottie laughs. “I clicked on it and saw it was verified, with 77 million followers. I was so shocked I literally threw my phone across the bed.”

Hadid wanted to buy one of Lottie’s recent paintings: a horse rearing, with the words ‘Not her first rodeo, won’t be her last’ splashed across the hot pink background.

“My artworks sell within a minute when I put them online,” Lottie explains. “The painting had already sold, but it was still in my living room. It tested me morally and ethically, but at the end of the day, everyone’s money is the same. The person who bought that artwork could have spent 12 months saving up for that piece. Why should I take that away from them for a celebrity?” Not to be put off, the supermodel commissioned another painting to give to her sister and fellow model, Bella Hadid, for her new home in Fort Worth, Texas.

“You can sell anything anywhere in the world now,” Lottie says, shaking her head. “I work out of a shipping container in Trangie, but a Victoria’s Secret opening star just bought my painting and gave it to a Victoria’s Secret closing model.”

The story went viral, landing 32-year-old Lottie on the Today show, which led to 14,000 people flocking to her website in one day — an incredible moment for the self-taught painter who once flunked high school art.

Growing up on over 2500 hectares of cotton and cereal farming land, 30 kilometres outside Narromine, New South Wales, Lottie soaked up a quintessential rural childhood alongside her older sister, Eliza, younger brother, Gus, and parents Matt and Susie. It was glorious, unruly and mostly DIY. Matt swapped a carton of beer for a saddle for the kids to learn to ride; patched together second-hand motorcycles; and taught them to waterski on mismatched borrowed skis.

“We had a beautiful childhood, very much outside. Dad would bring home things from the farm to keep us occupied,” Lottie says.

“Mum and Dad always took us wherever they went; they were very generous with their time. They did really well because of Dad’s dedication to farming and Mum’s dedication to supporting it.”

After finishing primary school in Narromine, Lottie found her spiritual home at Sydney’s St Vincent’s College. “I’d still be there now if we didn’t have to leave,” Lottie says with a laugh. “I’m the perfect combination of reef and beef: raised in the country and finished by the sea. My Sydney schooling gave me this whole other perspective on life.”

She had always been drawn to art, following in the footsteps of her crafting grandmother Maureen ‘Mausie’ Johnston and painter mother. But the high school curriculum, with its regimented view on what art was, failed to sustain her creativity.

“Art history really brought me down,” Lottie explains, “but I’ve always maintained that art is what speaks to you. I don’t think we need to overcomplicate it. Art for me means connecting with people. Art is fun. Art is cool. Being creative means being able to think for yourself.”

After a brief and unfulfilling stint at Canberra’s Australian National University studying landscape architecture, home called. Moving back to Narromine at 21 years old, she dabbled with various jobs in admin and at the local pub. Then she met her husband, Ned McCutcheon, at the Trangie races — an iconic bush-love backstory — and Lottie moved in with the cotton farmer just six days later.

“I was jobless and had nothing going on. I joke it was like him buying the worst house on the best street,” Lottie says wryly. “Good investment, babe!” The couple welcomed their first son, Ted, in 2016. That same year, Lottie’s beloved Mausie passed away, leaving each of her grandchildren $15,000 — a veritable fortune at the time for the young mum. Outside a Trangie pub one evening, Lottie surveyed a derelict building in the main street with new eyes. With encouragement from mates, she called the owner and put in an offer.

“I was thinking he’s gonna say 50 grand,” Lottie muses. “He was like, ‘How about $12,000?’ I went, ‘How about nine?’ He said, ‘Okay’. That’s how The Studio was born.”

It took Lottie and Ned a month to clear the detritus from the crammed rooms, rammed from floor to ceiling with stuff collected over decades. Buried throughout the time capsule were some unpleasant finds — dried husks of abandoned snake skins — as well as some buried treasure, including a tin stuffed with cash that Lottie returned to the previous owner.

“I wanted to start on the right foot. Karma is a queen, and maybe that’s why I’m so lucky now!”

Lottie set up her paints and canvases, and people began popping in. “I had this little espresso machine in the corner and visitors would ask me to make them a coffee while they sat and chatted,” Lottie says. “I realised there was money to be made.”

Installing a coffee window, Lottie went from selling 12 coffees a day to 200, the business accidentally morphing into a fully fledged café with a side of fashion and homewares. The Studio became Trangie’s place to be: where women came to introduce their babies, locals gathered to spin yarns and tourists converged for country hospitality.

“I’ll give anything a go. What’s the worst that can happen? I think a lot of my success comes from being a risk taker,” Lottie explains, with typical forthright spirit. “Failing doesn’t scare me. I’m surrounded by people who will love me regardless. That gives me the power to make choices that other people might not be able to.”

After eight years of this, Lottie decided to move on, selling the business within three weeks of listing it in March 2024. “We survived the drought, then Covid, which taught us to up our online game and get better on social media,” she says. 

“But finding employees was tough and by this time I’d had my second son, Jimmy [now four]. The Studio was taking more than it was giving.”

Installing a shipping container in her backyard, Lottie started painting again: her mixture of personality, colour, humour and flair drawing followers and collectors.

“My social media success boils down to remaining super-authentic. I talk to my followers on Instagram the same way I talk to my friends. It’s just a big group chat about art.”

A chance discovery in her family tree kickstarted a new creative path. “Mum found out that one of our ancestors was Mary Ann Bugg, an Aboriginal woman who was [bushranger] Captain Thunderbolt’s right hand. There were beautiful photos of them with their horses that I decided to paint. I put it on Instagram and bang, it sold.”

Discovering her cowboy niche, Lottie threw herself into the horse world. In January 2025, the artist hit Tamworth for the Country Music Festival, including a visit to the Australian Bushmen’s Campdraft and Rodeo Association (ABCRA) national finals. Sitting down with several of the professionals on the circuit, Lottie’s snappy TikTok-style video interviews captured the excitement and energy of the rodeo arena.

“The entire experience was exhilarating, and so inclusive. From the people checking tickets at the door to the sportsmen and sportswomen, we were made to feel part of the community that is rodeo,” Lottie says. “It’s immediately clear how much skill and talent is in that arena, and how the love and respect for this sport runs so deeply across multiple generations. Touching base with the cowboy and cowgirl culture was inspiring; the best time I’ve had in ages.”

Now, with some large collaborations in the works, exciting projects yet to be revealed and a social media account that is popping off, the rising art star is incredibly grateful, although she knows it’s her own hustle behind her success.

“There has definitely been luck involved, but I’ve worked so hard for this,” she says. “I took the risk, had the backing from the universe and my beautiful buyers, and it worked.”

With a horizon of infinite potential, Lottie is deeply encouraging of others trying to get their passion projects off the ground.

“Give yourself permission to have fun. It doesn’t have to be serious: do it your way,” she enthuses. “I have no plan — I never have — but I can say with certainty that this feels like what I should have felt 20 years ago.”

To see Lottie’s art, visit lottieraeart.com or Instagram @lottierae_art. 

To view Nigel Malone’s shot-on-film exhibition, First Rodeo, follow him on Instagram @5point6_pictures or visit his website: 5point6.pictures. 

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