A new exhibit of student work is on display in the new year at Arts of the Pamlico’s Turnage Theatre. It’s not the work of children, however. These are students of watercolorist and co-owner of Lemonade Art Gallery Carol Mann.

“It’s all original work, not classroom work,” Mann said. “They’re all over 50 (years old), so it’s kind of art later in life.”

That was the catch for entering the show: no student could submit a work they’d done during Mann’s classes.

“It was a requirement, because otherwise you would see 70 pictures of the same thing,” Mann laughed, adding that some of the classroom work was outstanding in its own right.

Mann has 56 students; 36 entered artwork into the exhibit that officially goes on display with a reception Wednesday night from 5:30 p.m. until 7 p.m. at the theatre. She said the show is part of another learning process, one that is a natural progression from painter to exhibitor.

“I had a hard time coercing them all to enter because a lot of them had never been in a show; I wanted to teach the process involved in entering a show,” Mann said. “That’s part of teaching, too: not just to paint but how to submit things into a contest.”

Mann has been teaching painting for almost five years and some of her students have been with her that long. She’s a realist — her watercolors capture a softer view of real life through depth, light and color — but she encourages her students to find their own artistic voices and styles once they’ve learned the basics.

“It takes a while to encourage them to kind of go off on their own, because they want to emulate whoever they’re taking lessons from,” Mann said. “After a while, after you’ve had a student for a year or two, you can pick their work out.”

The Turnage exhibit portrays a mix of subjects: barns, still lifes, architecture, animals and a few portraits, and Mann is already scheduling next year’s show, which she hopes will attract even more submissions. Most of the 70 pieces in the show are for sale, she said.

Wednesday’s opening reception is free and open to the public. The exhibit will be on display until Jan. 28. The Turnage Theatre is located at 150 W. Main St., Washington.