A teacher at Orange High School where the 14 year old is a student encouraged her to enter her portrait into the competition run by the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

If selected, Freya’s work will be exhibited at the Orange Regional Gallery, alongside the touring Archibald Prize 2018 exhibition from February 9.

There will be a special combined exhibition opening for the two Archies on February 8, which will include art activities for primary school children.

Orange gallery education officer Cecilie Knowles said the competition will give young people a chance to see their artwork hanging in their local gallery and the opening would be a chance to show it off.

“The opening will be a wonderful opportunity for young artists to invite family and friends along to see their work and will include free, supervised art-making activities for children K-6,” she said. “Everyone is invited.” 

Portraits should be on A3 sized paper and unmounted/unframed. Any art materials can be used – including paint, pencil, pastels, paper, and collage – but the artwork must be two-dimensional and should be a portrait of someone children know and is important to them.

The competition is open to children between the ages of 5 and 18. There will be prizes awarded to the winners in four different age categories.

Application forms can be collected from the gallery or downloaded online – submissions open until January 27.