A great deal of talent at Carinus exhibition

Johan Carinus Art School launched its annual prizegiving exhibition on Wednesday night. The exhibition, which showcases the work of local school pupils who have excelled in a variety of mediums is "the highlight of the school calender" according to Carinus principal Virginia Reed.

"To these students, this is at the same level as being chosen to compete for Eastern Cape provincial sport," she said.

Reed explained that the work this year was of a particularly high standard. So high in fact, that the coveted first prize for drawing had to be split to make two subcategories, namely design and visual arts. "The drawing prize is a particular honour, and the contenders were both very good," Reed said.

The winners were Warren Mills, a Grade 11 learner from Graeme College, for his life-like pencil sketch portrait of an older man, and Kai Garner who is in Grade 12 at Graeme, for his pencil and colour sketch of three glass marbles.

"Garner’s work is exceptional, as he draws simply from life," said Reed, while Mills "has created some very mature work for his age group".

Other award categories were textiles, ceramics, graphics, sculpture and painting, as well as junior awards for learners in Grade 9 and lower.

The schools represented in the exhibition were Victoria Girls’ High School, Graeme College and Hoerskool PJ Olivier. The winners were decided by a panel comprised of art teachers from the schools and Carinus.

These pieces went through a month-long selection process, and only those works that got over 65% were exhibited. This does not make the exhibition any less impressive in scale however, with over 700 works exhibited at Carinus, ranging from Grade 4 through to matric.

The exhibition is on show until 23 September at Carinus Art School in Beaufort Street.