BOLTON shoppers are journeying around the world in 80 metres at a colourful open air art exhibition.

Part of Newport Street has been transformed into an open air gallery showcasing a broad range of work by artists from the town and its surrounds.

And within the space of less than a few hundred metres, visitors can admire scenes from as far afield as Italy, Malta and Australia - and of course Bolton.

As browsers basked in yesterday's sun-drenched atmosphere, Leigh artist Len Ratcliffe even played a didgeridoo.

Mr Ratcliffe, who missed the annual show last year because he was travelling round Australia, was selling airbrushed paintings of whales, turtles and dolphins which he produced on his Oz odyssey.

"The next step is to paint the didgeridoo now with scenes from my travels," said the 52-year-old.

It all seemed a world away from the background clatter of workmen digging up the street to lay new paving stones. The Art On The Streets exhibition features dozens of paintings costing anything from £5 to £750.

Among the highlights are atmospheric industrial and countryside scenes by 40-year-old Bolton artist Janet Kenyon and the Bolton landscapes by Harwood's Brian Barlow.

"The countryside around here is often under-rated but you can easily find subject matter around Bolton," he said.

Town centre visitors wanting to travel in time rather than distance made tracks for the work of 63-year-old Daisy Hill artist Paul Titterton, a member of Bolton Art Circle. Mr Titterton, who specialises in turn of the century scenes featuring trams said: "I don't claim to be Lowry but it's an era many people are nostaglic about."

The exhibition part of the annual Bolton festival, finishes on Monday and runs from 10am to 5pm. It is not open on Sunday.