THE largest exhibition yet of original paintings will be shown at the Kings Hall/Winter Gardens complex, Ilkley, for nine days.

Artists from all over Britain will arrive in town to hang their works on Saturday, November 25. The exhibition will be opened by TV personality Richard Whiteley who will stick around signing copies of his new book.

From the opening, the exhibition will be open from 11am to 4pm daily, finishing with the prizegiving on Sunday, December 3, at 3.30pm. More than £2,000 worth of prizes will be handed out to delighted winning artists.

Organiser Leslie Simpson said: "Between 5,000 and 8,000 people will attend the show and during the course of the exhibition between a quarter and a third of the paintings will be sold."

During the show visitors and artists will be invited to take part in a record-breaking bid by cerebral palsy sufferer Simon Langhorn, 32, from Pontefract, who wants to accumulate the world's biggest collection of advertising pens and pencils.

So far he has managed to collect almost 2,000 and there will be a charity wishing well into which people can drop spare pens, pencils or even cash for SCOPE. When his collection has doubled the organisers will be writing to the Guinness Book of Records.

Three major societies will take part in the exhibition - the British Watercolour Society, The British Society of Painters and the Society of Miniaturists, which was founded in 1895.

Mr Simpson said: "Most of the shops, cafs and restaurants stock up and take on extra staff during the nine days of the exhibition as they know they are going to be very busy. The artists, the art buyers and the visitors just love an excuse to come to Ilkley."

There is still room for 25 more artists to take part. Anyone wanting a place should send a stamped addressed envelope to BSP, 1 Leamington Road, Ilkley, LS29 8EN, to obtain an application form.

Mr Simpson said: "There are so many paintings that it does take several hours to get around and try to take everything in, absorbing and tasting the delights and atmosphere.

"If you have never been, it is a real treat for anyone who has an eye for the nice things in life or anyone who really appreciates true works of traditional art."