Art gallery director Kristy Brown said the support for the exhibition had been immense with twice as many entries as previous years.

"It's really overwhelming," Ms Brown said. "The last couple of years we haven't even had half the amount of artwork we received this year. It's great for us and it means the teachers and schools have been really supportive and seen what a great opportunity it is for the students to have their work showcased like this."

Ms Brown said the huge variety of work, which includes dresses, paintings, photography, sculpture and much more, really showed off the range of talent local students have. Wade High School's Jessica Bardney impressed with her series of paintings featuring the bushland around Scenic Hill.

"My nonna used to live up there and I used to love going out on the hill and watching the sun come out," she said. "My teacher said I had a talent for colour ? I thought I would work with my strengths and I love the bush so I thought it would be a good subject."

John Bortolazzo's photographic and film exhibition focused on an issue many other year 12 students, past and present, would easily be able to relate to. "My work is about insomnia and nightmares," he said. "I love taking pictures and I took these from a first-person perspective and tapped into my love of photography, being an insomniac, having nightmares and working in the hardware industry a lot."

The exhibition of students' major projects from visual arts, design and technology, textiles and drama, opened last night and will be at the gallery until December 18.