Oscar Mortlock, 17, of St Mary MacKillop College and Lucy Buchanan, 17, both like it.

Oscar says of the so-called Boneless Man at the front of the image, ''He looks like he's photobombing it.''

He and Buchanan are the ACT students selected to take part in the 2013 National Summer Art Scholarships at the National Gallery of Australia. More than 500 Year 11 students applied from around Australia for the 16 places in the week-long program, which has been running since 1997.

''I feel very lucky to be here,'' Buchanan says.

Both say they haven't visited the south side of town all that much beyond Civic. They've been enjoying exploring the gallery in depth, noting that paintings look very different in real life than they do viewed online or in photographs. Buchanan's favourite work is Jackson Pollock's Blue Poles - ''it's so much bigger than you expect'' - and Mortlock likes the paintings by the colonial artists.

Both intend to pursue a career in art. Buchanan hopes to go on to study fine arts and possibly work in a gallery or art space and Mortlock wants to focus on graphic design and both computer and classical art.

Program coordinator Adriane Boag has been working on it since 2004. ''It's a youth program designed to immerse a group of students entering Year 12 in a national visual arts institution, the National Gallery of Australia, and increase their knowledge of the kinds of careers possible in the visual arts,'' she says.

It is also, she says, an opportunity for them to spend time with like-minded people.

''They've bonded incredibly well and are very supportive of each other and inclusive of each other.''

The students are shown areas of the gallery not open to the public and introduced to the work done in various branches, including conservation and registration.

There are various art-related activities on the program, including a visit to the ANU School of Art and a talk with the artist Brent Harris. ''We did a life drawing class which was a bit strange, with an actual person in front of us: a young man, very exposed,'' Buchanan says.

They also went to Carey's Cave at Wee Jasper and created a long scroll-like drawing on an eight-metre-long paper.

''It's about pursuing a philosophical idea: reality versus illusion,'' Boag says. She says Mortlock and Buchanan have been ''great''. ''I'm really proud of them,'' she says. ''Their applications were excellent and they're really engaging and very thoughtful and participating in the group. They have good observations about the works and are really engaged.''