A wonderful sweeping panorama of our fine city is set to inspire artists when an open air art competition returns to Norwich later this year.

Paint Out Norwich - an open air art competition which saw seven Norwich landmarks celebrated in paint by 28 artists last autumn - will take to the city's streets for a second time in October. Up to 50 artists will be dotted around Norwich competing in the two-day competition on October 20 and 21.

At yesterday's launch some new additions to the competition were revealed, including a mass painting event which will see all the artists gather together at Mousehold Heath to paint the city's skyline on October 22.

James Colman, who organises Paint Out Norwich with Will Buckley, said: 'We are very excited about doing Paint Out Norwich again and that we are expanding it to include more artists. We are also going to diversify the programme so that we keep our core event from last year but on top of that we are going to have a select number of artists doing a nocturnal event that will run parallel to the day event.

'We will also be doing a mass Paint Out event on Mousehold Heath. It lends itself to a chance for artists to paint a wonderful panoramic view of Norwich and includes all the historic landmarks you associate with Norwich.'

Last year the seven landmarks the artists painted during the original two-day competition were Norwich Castle, Norwich Cathedral, the Cathedral of St John The Baptist, Pull's Ferry, Elm Hill, Norwich Market and The Forum. For 2015 there will be a different selection of locations. The Maddermarket Theatre will be one of them but the rest are still being decided.

Paint Out Norwich is part of the annual Hansells Hostry Festival, and the festival's founder, Stash Kirkbride, said it was wonderful to celebrate the return of Paint Out Norwich and that he could not wait to see the artwork flooding in.

Paint Out Norwich will culminate in an auction and exhibition.

More details, including how artists can apply, should be available by May at www.paintoutnorwich.org

Do you have a Norwich arts story? Email arts correspondent Emma Knights at emma.knights@archant.co.uk