Talented students from 20 sixth form colleges had their artwork displayed at the House of Commons.

The exhibition, which displayed 21 works of art by 21 students including still life, portraits and landscape scenes, was organised by the Association of Colleges (AoC) and attended by Education Secretary Michael Gove.

One of the chosen artists Frances Reynold, aged 17, an art and design A-level student from Sir John Deane’s College, in Cheshire, exhibited an image created with a combination of charcoal and paint of St Paul’s Cathedral, in London.

She said: “I’d been on a tour of St Paul’s and we went into the viewing gallery.

“When we came down I got a good perspective and then started drawing from that. It’s really humbling to have been chosen for this exhibition because it’s such a prestigious event.”

Alice Smith, 17, who is studying A-level fine art at Cardinal Newman College, in Lancashire, exhibited a watercolour painting of a cabbage.

She said: “I have always loved watercolours and doing realist paintings, which is why I chose to paint the cabbage.  It is part of a wider set of work including a courgette and a mushroom, which uses a range of colour palettes.”

Cap: Frances Reynold shows her picture to Martin Doel,  chief executive of the Association of Colleges