And this year one young Nambuccan has grown to reach the pinnacle of achievement for practising high school-aged student artists.

Elly Gooch has been named as an exhibitor in the 2020 ARTEXPRESS Showcase for her prolific body of work - 'You Beaut Country'.

ARTEXPRESS is an annual series of 11 exhibitions of exemplary artworks created by New South Wales visual arts students for the HSC - a tradition which has now been going for nearly 70 years.

Elly's work will be showcased next year alongside 60-or-so others' at The Armory, in Sydney's Olympic Park.

She was understandably elated when she received the news last month.

"I really tried not to get my hopes up too much," she said.

"But then I checked my emails and there it was. I was excited - I rushed out to Mum and Dad and said, 'well you won't believe what just happened'.

"I feel so fortunate because there are so many talented artists out there, I didn't expect to be chosen."

Her teacher, Angela Bagordo, was the one who nominated Elly and said she wasn't at all surprised she was selected.

"She worked consistently on perfecting her technique to make sure the work was resolved. And she has a phenomenal work rate."

Looking over Elly's conceptual diaries and seeing the sheer number of pieces in the body of work - 68 in total, with more which didn't make the cut - you can plainly see that everything her teacher says about her is an objective truth.

For the past 12 months Elly has been exploring the Australian identity through a series of painted landscapes and drawings of native fauna.

"I really enjoy scientific drawings, but I wanted to make something the audience could relate to," she said.

Beside punchy portraits of some of Australia's iconic vistas - The Big Pineapple, Kata Tjuta (the Olgas), the Sydney Opera House - Elly has juxtaposed some 'undersold' elements of our nation's terrestrial identity.

"The Australian identity is unique and not always what you'd expect. I wanted to move away from the kitschy and touristy notions of our identity and offer a broader perspective," she said.

The postcard-sized pictures also feature homages to Australia's noted creative geniuses - Sydney Nolan, Brett Whiteley, Jeffrey Smart, Russell Drysdale, Reg Mombassa (from Mambo fame). Even the title is a reference to John Olsen and his major work 'Journey into the You Beaut Country'.

"I was inspired by a lot of different Australian artists," she said.

"People paint what they know - their experiences. We're all constrained within a period of time, and some of these artists were viewing the landscape 80 years ago. I was interested in exploring how perceptions of our landscape have changed," she said.

Elly said she's thrilled to have the chance to see her work up on the walls of a gallery.

"It's fulfilling. After all the effort I've put in, this makes it all worth it," she said.

"And it's so good to be recognised, especially coming from a small regional community."

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