This new series embraces contestants of a different kind with four special episodes featuring celebrity and professional artists. Each agreed to participate in Watercolour Challenge on behalf of their favourite charity.

How you can participate
The challenges

How you can participate
The paintings from these charity specials will be auctioned and all the monies raised from the auction will be donated to the 12 charities represented. The paintings will be on view at the Watercolour Challenge exhibition at the Mall Galleries, from 4 to 13 January 2002, and visitors to the gallery will be able to make their bid during the time of the exhibition in specially designed bid boxes.

Viewers will also be able to bid online nearer the time. The entrance to the Mall Galleries is on The Mall in Central London, SW1; the exhibition will be open daily from 10am to 5pm; the nearest tube is Charing Cross.

Viewers will be able to vote for their favourite painting on each of the four days that these special episodes of Watercolour Challenge are transmitted (10 and 11 September; 1 and 2 October). The dedicated phone line is 0900 1 22 99 01 and calls are charged at 60p per minute. Profits from these calls to be donated to the charities voted for. The viewers' choice in each case will be posted on the website and on 4-Tel.

Viewers will also have an opportunity to purchase copies of the paintings, either as a gift wallet of 12 postcards priced at £4.99 or as framed limited edition reproduction prints at £95 each. Again, the money raised will be donated to the 12 charities nominated by the celebrities and professional artists who took part. Details are available by calling ooooooooo [number to come tomorrow], Monday to Friday during normal office hours. The postcards and framed prints will also be available at the exhibition in January.

The challenges
We select four beautiful and varied locations in Oxfordshire for our artists to paint. The celebrity artists are popular faces from TV and the media and the professional artists all recognised and respected in their own field.

The rules are the same as usual - three artists compete against one another and must complete their painting in four hours. The only difference is that we have not stipulated that the artists must use the watercolour medium for these episodes, giving them the opportunity to display their talents in their own way. Some of the results can be seen here as a taster for the programmes to come.

Transmission: 10 September 2001 at 3.30pm
Location: Blenheim Palace, home of the Duke and Duchess of Marlborough
Host: Hannah Gordon
Celebrity artists and their charities: Cherie Lunghi painting on behalf of The London Connection Ray Stevenson on behalf of Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children
Malcolm Tierney on behalf of Children of the Storm
Judge: The Duchess of Marlborough

Transmission: 11 September 2001 at 3.30pm
Location: the grounds of Raymond Blanc's famous restaurant Le Manoir Aux Quat' Saisons, Great Milton
Celebrity artists and their charities: Ron Moody painting in support of PHAB (Physically Disabled, Able Bodied)
Helen Atkinson-Wood on behalf of Comic Relief
Edward de Souza on behalf of WWF (Worldwide Fund for Nature)
Judge: Raymond Blanc

Transmission: 1 October 2001 at 3.15pm
Location: New College, Oxford
Guest host: Jan Francis
Professional artists and their charities: Ronald Maddox, President of the Royal Institute, painting on behalf of the Artist's General Benevolent Fund
Janet Golphin, former Vice-President of the Royal Watercolour Society, on behalf of ChildLine
Shirley Trevena, Royal Institute member, on behalf of Martlett's Hospice
Judge: Brian Sewell, art critic for the London Evening Standard. (Brian can also be seen later in the series as he judges the grand final day in Tuscany.)

Transmission: 2 October 2001 at 3.15pm
Location: River Thames at Abingdon
Guest host: Jan Francis
Celebrity artists and their charities: Bill Oddie painting on behalf of the RSPB
Karen Drury on behalf of NCH (National Children's Homes) Philip Franks on behalf of the Imperial Cancer Research Fund
Judge: Mike Chaplin

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