MORE than 20 portrait artists painted nine life models who posed at an open-air sitting held at the Yewbarrow House, Grange-over-Sands, home of Lake District hotelier and arts supporter Jonathan Denby.

It was part of a weekend of events to celebrate arts – and was so well received that there are already plans to repeat it next year.

The following day the flora and fauna of the garden became the subject as more artists arrived to translate what they saw onto canvas – and the event raised £958 for the National Gardens Scheme.

Among the artists in attendance were Burnley-based contemporary figurative and landscape painter Jonathan Marchant and Sam Dalby, of Settle, a member of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters.