ACTRESS Sue Jenkins and her husband of 25 years David Fleeshman chose the prize-winning painting 'From Prince Street Bridge, Bristol' by Jeremy Storr, from Sheffield.

With phones ringing constantly and artists cancelling their exhibition places due to the fuel crisis, organisers were not sure the exhibition would open until the last minute.

To make matters worse, Sue Jenkins and David Fleeshman, were filming until the early hours and only managed to snatch a bit of sleep before setting off for Ilkley. Their driver was despatched with instructions to get petrol where he could on the way to Cheshire to pick them up and to get them back home.

Most of the artists, struggling with empty fuel tanks, managed to make it across the Ilkley, where vistors on the opening day were rather thin on the ground.

Sue and David made an excellent job of opening the art exhibition at the Kings Hall/Winter Gardens and then spent several hours choosing the prize-winner from the 1,265 paintings on show.

By Sunday and Monday the stragglers were arriving and spirits were lifted when the sales of paintings took off with one customer buying a dozen, another buying seven and a third arriving on Sunday to buy another 10."So all in all it was not a bad start to the show," said organiser Leslie Simpson.

The Celebrity Art section was led by Northern Ireland and Manchester City footballer Jim Whitley. His pastel portraits of David Beckham, Ryan Giggs, Richard Edgehill and Mark Kennedy were described as stunning.

Keith Clifford, a regular and popular attendant at these shows as joint co-ordinator of the celebrity artists was not able to attend on this occasion because he was busy filming the new series of Last of the Summer Wine as Billy Hardcastle, one of the three main characters in the show. The show runs until Sunday (Sep 24) open daily from 12 noon until 5.00pm. Admittance is £2.50. Pictured right are actress Sue Jenkinson and show visitor Emily Long, eight. (036-48-AM)