A portrait of Bain was a surprise entry in the Otago Art Society's Edinburgh Realty Premier Art Awards at the Art Station.
Artist Karen Scott said she wanted to promote discussion with the painting.
"It was just so controversial at the time and I wanted to make people think about it," she said yesterday.
"You can make people think, without being libellous."
The acrylic work includes the infamous words "You are the only one who deserved to live", which were found on the Bain family computer after the deaths.
Mr Bain spent 13 years in prison after being convicted of the 1994 murders of five members of his family at Every St, Dunedin.
He was found not guilty in June this year after a retrial in the High Court at Christchurch.
Mrs Scott (52), who describes herself as an artist-farmer, has been farming 3640ha at Loch Linnhe Station, at Kingston, with her husband, Murray, for the past 20 years.
She won the Invercargill Licensing Trust Open Award in 2007 and 2008 and the Locations Queenstown Best Contemporary Award last year.
"I've won a couple of awards in the last few years and I'm starting to get a bit of recognition now," she said.
She also collaborated on a Dunedin Community Gallery exhibition in December, A Fine Line, based on ballet paintings by French artist Edgar Degas (1834-1917), with Albert Town artist Susie Ruddenklau and Wanaka ballet dancer Kasha Szot.
She was unable to attend the Dunedin exhibition.
"It's lambing season and we've been too busy with the sheep."
Otago Art Society president Andrena Hall said the work had not attracted any controversy during the two-week exhibition.
"No-one who came through the exhibition made any comment about it; either positive or negative," she said yesterday.
"Art is meant to be provocative and challenge your thinking - and not just the style, but the subject.
"You can take out of it whatever you want."
