SEVENTEEN-YEAR-OLD talent Rufus Punton is waiting to find out if his artwork will make it into the National Gallery Victoria exhibition, Top Arts 2023.

Top Arts is an annual exhibition displaying selected VCE student’s artwork completed the year previously, in fields such as photography, sculptures, textiles, filmmaking, and painting.

Thousands of art works are entered for the exhibition with Rufus’ work making it to the ‘short list. Last week he took his works to Melbourne for assessors to make the final decision on exhibition pieces.

Rufus’ entry is in printmaking, using the aquatint technique, which introduces etching that creates areas of tone in a picture.

The etching was done on copper plate with acid and was planned and completed over the duration of two school terms.

The Year 12 Portland Secondary College student is now waiting patiently to hear if his artwork has been taken off the short list and gone straight into the 2023 exhibition.

Rufus said he had plans to study Fine Art at RMIT in 2023.