ISABELLA Donn had to pinch herself when she saw her work hanging in the prestigious Art Gallery of NSW.
"It was super crazy, in the room above there was a Picasso," Ms Donn, 18, said.
The former St Philip's Christian College Newcastle student and former Warners Bay High student Mayra Kelly have works hanging in the gallery until May 7 as part of the ARTEXPRESS exhibition, which showcases exemplary artworks created by students for the HSC in Visual Arts.
Overall, the Hunter has 18 students - including six from Warners Bay High - selected for ARTEXPRESS, which is being exhibited at four Sydney and five regional venues.
"It feels a bit surreal," Ms Donn said.
"I went to go visit the gallery last year to see ARTEXPRESS and I just remember thinking they were so talented and I really hoped to get selected, that's all I really wanted out of year 12, but I didn't really expect to get to the Art Gallery of NSW that's for sure ... art was one of my favourite subjects and that was definitely one of my goals."
Isabella's work The absent, unknown, and make-believe comprises pen on paper drawings of faces across 49 panels.
"My work was about someone in my family who was absent for my childhood and it was about my emotions with that and dealing with that from a young age," she said.
"It's been a big part of me growing up and just something I've had a bit of struggle with. I really like using art as something to work through, I did a similar thing for my year 11 project so I knew I wanted to do something around that because I like art as therapy."
She said she used herself as a reference for the drawings "because I didn't want to bother anybody else".
"It's abstract representations of my emotions as well as the way I see that person, so I wrote in my statement it's about the characters I create of that person in my head, of who I wish they were, who I want them to become and the ideas I've had about that person and the emotions towards it," she said.
"It's a mix of everything and it's supposed to have a chaotic energy to it, of being a little bit mixed up and not being able to find a refined image of that person, especially as a kid being very confused. So the confusion is what I wanted to portray."
Isabella said she had been drawing since she was a child.
"I find expressing myself and that therapy aspect to it [appealing] , which is the reason I love seeing everyone else's work too. I was never that good at English or writing or communicating things verbally, so I like that communication of ideas and emotions done with images, which is really cool."
Isabella has deferred an offer to study secondary teaching at the University of Newcastle and is taking a gap year.
Mayra Kelly's collection of works is called Ngunngun Baraayn Ngundakang, or Yesterday. Today. Tomorrow. It incorporates rusted metal, foam board, acrylic paint, wood, flyscreen, fabric, scratchy board, waterpaint and tracing paper.
Ms Kelly said in her artist's statement that she has had questions ever since she could remember about her family's roots.
"Who am I? Where do I belong? What is my story?" she said.
"With many holes and missing pieces in my family history, I have always been riddled with unanswered questions.
"My body of work explores the loss of identity and historical knowledge throughout my bloodline, as well as the rich culture, memories and emotions held in a single photo. I own a limited number of photos of my ancestors.
"For my work I manipulated them to represent the many layers of memories and emotions contained within a photo."
Ms Kelly's Warners Bay High peers also selected for ARTEXPRESS are Grace Mulready, Taylor Brown, Kiara Mackie, Mia Hill and Mackenzie Curtis.
The ARTEXPRESS Virtual exhibition will launch in July.
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