RADIO presenter Martin Kelner will officially open the British Watercolour Society's Autumn Exhibition next week.

The BBC Radio Leeds presenter, who hosts a football-related show four days a week on the local radio station, is to be the special guest at the opening of the exhibition at Ilkley's Winter Garden, starting on Saturday November 26.

The nine-day exhibition, open daily from noon to 4pm after the opening day, is expected to feature just under a thousand paintings by 104 artists.

Mr Kelner will also attend a private exhibition preview session, which will take place just before the officially opening, from 11am until noon on November 26.

He is to be introduced at the opening ceremony by new society president and Ilkley resident, Maurice Lee, better known as Maurice Grumble-weed.

Highlights of the exhibition itself are expected to include work by another noted Ilkley resident, artist Jonathan Shaw, who is ranked among the top five best selling artists in the country by top galleries.

Also exhibiting will be other highly-rated artists, including David Lyons - best known for his paintings of soulful-eyed cows - and Clifford Williams, who specialises in colourful, atmospheric landscapes.

To be allowed to exhibit at the show, all registered artists must have The British Certificate of Highest Merit in Art.

Wharfedale artists are also regulars to the exhibitions, and they will have their paintings on show alongside works by the biggest names.

Landscape artist Wilf Palliser, from Otley, plans to exhibit six water colour paintings at the show, and Addingham resident Arthur Atkinson will offer four landscapes in oils, inspired by several days he spent walking in the Rocky Mountains National Park, Colorado.

Former accountant Irene Shaw, of Draughton, has chosen a variety of subjects for the six paintings she will exhibition, including a watercolour of a Japanese lady, which has a catalogue price of £350.

Yorkshire's landscape is the chosen theme of six works in pastels by Ilkley's Charles Ketteridge, with depictions of Aysgarth Falls in North Yorkshire, and Wharfedale itself.

Burley-in-Wharfedale's Greg Learmonth has produced four oil paintings depicting the countryside of Lannigou, Brittany, inspired by the works of Claude Monet. The exhibition will run until Sunday December 4.