THE former Archbishop of York is to officially open a major art exhibition in Ilkley on Saturday.

Now the new vicar at St Margaret's in Ilkley, Dr David Hope will do the honours at the British Society of Painters' spring exhibition at the Winter Gardens at 11am.

The show will run until Sunday, March 20, and be open daily from noon to 5pm.

Leslie Simpson, director of the British of Society of Painters, said of Dr Hope: "We are delighted to say that he has agreed to open this exhibition as his first official engagement in town. We're quite proud of it."

Dr Hope was twice previously asked to open British Society of Painters exhibitions, the first was in Ilkley when he was serving as Bishop of Wakefield at the time.

The second was one of the society's exhibitions at Cork Street in London when Dr Hope was serving as the Bishop of London. Mr Simpson said on both occasions that he was unable to fit the openings into his busy calendar of events.

But at long last, he said the former Archbishop of York could not 'resist the delights of Yorkshire's very own nationally known anthem town'.

The exhibition will feature just under 1,000 oil, pastel, acrylic and watercolour paintings from artists all over Britain, many of whom are from Yorkshire.

The leading artist for the spring exhibition will be Jonathan Shaw, of Craiglands Park, Ilkley.

Last year, the Fine Art Trade Guild covering all 800 of the leading art galleries in the country, voted him into the top ten selling artists in Britain. He even received more votes than his hero, well-known artist David Shepherd.

Mr Shaw, who owns an art gallery at Craven Court in Skipton, was the only artist in West Yorkshire to achieve the award.

Mr Simpson said: "For him to be an Ilkley artist is a real coup."

Although Mr Shaw was the son of a professional artist, he did not have much luck selling his artwork early on in career.

He said: "For any artist, it's a struggle to make it big. It's all about being in the right place at the right time."

Mr Shaw, 45, who needed the money to raise his family, also decided to change his painting style. His early work was more detailed and focused on using pastels to paint wildlife and portraits.

But Mr Shaw recognised the change in trends and decided to use acrylics to paint in a looser, more contemporary style. He describes his current artwork as 'minimalist'.

He got his big break a few years ago when a publishing company spotted one of his pieces, a contemporary seascape, at a Fine Art Trade Guild exhibition. Now he paints seascape after seascape, although each piece is done in slightly different colours.

The exhibition will also feature works of some other local artists ,including Charles Ketteridge, of Ilkley, Arthur Atkinson, of Addingham, Greg Learmonth, of Burley-in-Wharfedale, and Wilf Palliser, of Otley. Each will have paintings for sale.

Mr Simpson said all of the nearly 1,000 traditional paintings at the spring exhibition can be bought by visitors. It is the first of four local exhibitions planned by the society for 2005.

Maurice Lee, vice-president of the society, will introduce Dr Hope at the ceremony.