Oakura artist Caz Novak has been selected to exhibit her work in the fourth Florence Biennale of contemporary art in December.

She was invited to exhibit after a committee of about 50 critics saw her work on her website.

"I was contacted through my website and asked to submit five photographs of different works to the jury. I was accepted on the basis of those last year."

Novak has just completed her work for the exhibition – an acrylic diptych of the Taranaki coastline and native plants entitled Pasifica – of Land and Sea.

"Because it's going to an international exhibition I wanted something distinctly New Zealand."

The work will also hang in Puke Ariki when it opens this month.

Novak is undecided about whether she will attend the exhibition along with her painting.

The trip to Italy would be self-funded.

Her website, which she started in 1999, has done wonders for the commercial side of being an artist, she said.

"It's been amazing. I'm selling my work in Europe and the States. I have just under 800 on my mailing list."