Artists across the county will soon be opening the doors to their studios to exhibit, sell and talk about their work with the general public.

The Norfolk & Norwich Open Studios 2015 event kicks off on Saturday, May 23 and runs until Sunday, June 7 with hundreds of artists in venues across Norfolk taking part in one of the largest and most successful open studios schemes in the country.

The event has been running for 20 years, delivered by the Norfolk & Norwich Festival in association with Wex Photographic, to showcase artistic talents, whether it be sculpture, painting, jewellery or rug tufting, and share their skills.

This year there are over 450 participating artists across 248 venues as well as 10 schools and 17 local art trails.

In the Breckland area you can see art as diverse as Nigel Barnett's forged metal sculptures at his forge at Fransham or a collection of artists' work at the Little Gallery in Norwich Street, Dereham.

Ruthanne Tudball's ceramics are on display at the Temple Barn Pottery at Welborne while a group of friends from Litcham will exhibit a variety of work at Meadow Cottage in Butt Lane.

In the Broadland district Jules Allen will showcase her paintings, prints and artists' books made using traditional etching, letterpress and bookbinding techniques alongside Maggie McArthur's contemporary quilts at the Thatched Cottage in Reepham, while also in the town you could visit Sarah Bays and see her drypoint and monoprint techniques, Alison Varley's jewellery or Jane Bygrave's pop-up gallery.

Reepham Primary School is linking its work with the children's creative writing using work with authors and illustrators as inspiration.

Artistic talents are widespread in north and west Norfolk from the SALT Glass studios in Burnham Thorpe across to Colin Bygrave's atmospheric etchings in Briston, near Melton Constable with all manner of art work in between such as Frances Mary Taylor's portraiture and still life in Fakenham or John Richter's modernistic vision of the harbour and coastline at Wells.

The N&N Festival's artistic director William Galinsky said: 'It's a truly inspiring 16 days, demonstrating the diversity and talent of our visual arts community, as well as allowing you to see some of our beautiful county along the way.'

Studios are free to visit and visitors don't need to book in advance, unless they are a large group.

For more information with details of all the artists and their studios and the art trails and demonstrations visit the website www.nnopenstudios.org.uk.