College painter proves quick study with best exam score in world

Honor Hamlet's art scored 100 per cent in the international exams.

A New Zealand student who took only two years of art classes has received the best subject marks in the world in the Cambridge International Examinations.

Honor Hamlet, 17, from Huanui College near Whangarei, was the only person to gain a perfect score, 100 per cent, in AS Art.

She attributed much of her success to choosing a topic close to her heart.

"They recommend that you do something that is important to you and I realised what I felt most strongly about was the people that I loved," Honor said.

For her internals she painted her cousin Emma Jay who lives in the South Island.

For the Cambridge exam she painted her grandfather, Earl Hamlet, whom she is very close to but who had become sick recently.

"I showed something of how I felt towards him and expressed that in my painting," Honor said. "I think he quite liked it."

While Honor's results may suggest she has years of experience, in reality she has been taking art classes only since Year 12.

"When I first went to high school I decided that I wanted to be practical but then I decided that art was what I actually loved," Honor said.

She described her work, inspired by artists like Lucian Freud and Daphne Todd, as stylised realism.

Honor said her art teacher Carolyn Evans helped her think outside the box for her work.

"I think she really pushed me to use some artist models that I wouldn't necessarily consider," Honor said.

"At the start I was just using watercolour and she was the one that got me into oil paint."

While she had not taken formal lessons for very long, it appears art was in Honor's blood.

Her mother Anna is also an artist and encouraged her kids to be creative growing up.

"She used to draw us pictures to colour in," Honor said.

Honor had a nervous wait over the summer for results but was very excited to learn she had done so well.

"I was really relieved because I was worried about what it was going to be," she said. "It is very hard in art to predict what [response] your art is going to get."

Honor has been accepted into the Elam School of Fine Arts in Auckland but she is still not entirely sure what direction she wants to take her career in. "I'm not much of a planner," she said.

New Zealand did particularly well in the 2014 Cambridge International Examinations with 29 students achieving top-of-the-world results.

Fellow Huanui College student Richard Young was equal highest in New Zealand for AS mathematics.