Art you impressed? Whanganui's Carlton School holds its first art exhibition in three years

Picasso, Van Gogh, Da Vinci, Monet, Dali, Matisse and Pollock.

Who's to say the next great artist isn't coming out of Carlton School in Whanganui?

The school held its art exhibition in the school hall on Carlton Avenue last Friday and Saturday for all to see, or even purchase if they wanted to.

"Having it for sale is to recoup the outlay in materials for the art budget and because that's what artists do, they sell their work," said principal Gaye O'Connor.

"It's a good example to children, art is not just something you do at school, some people do it for a living and it's just as valid as being a doctor, a lawyer, a teacher or anything else."

Mariko Marshall checks out some monster sculptures with her daughters Emily Marshall, 10, and Ella Marshall, 3. Photo / Stuart Munro

Carlton School has an exhibition only every 2-3 years. There were things like pottery, pictures and ornaments on display.

"We do it this way due to the intense amount of time it takes, because for all the products you see in here, there are probably 10 failed products as children learn," O'Connor said.

"One thing the children learnt is that when an artist exhibits, they don't put the first thing they did up on the wall, they do lots of work and then select what they think is their best."

There was a Māori theme to a lot of the work as students incorporated the symbolism that they have been learning about in their relatively new curriculum.

"Since national standards came in, it really narrowed all of our focus to reading, writing and mathematics," O'Connor said.

"As the time went on, we all felt that we weren't paying enough attention to the whole other part of learning, of which the arts is a huge part.

"Children who might not necessarily be stars academically, have other outlets that we weren't focusing on."

The last time the school held an art exhibition was in 2015, but they held it over two school days, so this time they had it on a school day and the weekend.

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"We've had plenty of parents calling up and saying 'I don't care what it is, I don't care how much it is, but I'm buying my childs art," O'Connor said.

"The pride and excitement of the kids showing their parents their work is special."