Rolf leads TV Constable 'draw-in'

The finished piece was the size of a double-decker bus

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TV presenter Rolf Harris has led a team of artists in painting a giant replica of Constable's The Hay Wain.

Harris was joined by up to 150 artists in Trafalgar Square, central London, on Sunday as they recreated the famous painting on a 30ft by 20ft canvas.

The team had just one day to create 144 canvases to form the painting. The results were screened on BBC One's Rolf on Art on Sunday.

The original Hay Wain took John Constable five months to complete.

'Ambitious painting'

It is displayed in the National Gallery - which is opposite the site of Sunday's "draw-in".

The team of artists included schoolchildren, doctors, train drivers and botanists, as well as TV presenters Fearne Cotton and Anna Ryder Richardson.

Throughout the day, visitors to Trafalgar Square also had the chance to get involved by trying their hand at painting some of the canvases.

The finished work is the size of a double-decker bus.

Rolf Harris took charge of the event Trafalgar Square on Sunday

Before the event, Harris said: "Art is something for everyone to enjoy in one way or another.

"I can't wait to join artists of all styles to work on one of the most ambitious paintings I have ever attempted in my career."

The event forms part of Art on the Square, jointly organised by the BBC, the National Gallery, the National Portrait Gallery, London mayor Ken Livingstone and the Campaign for Drawing's Big Draw.

The completed painting of the Hay Wain was unveiled in its special frame outside the National Gallery live on TV on Sunday evening.

The new version will be projected nightly until Tuesday evening, along with the original, onto the front of the gallery's Sainsbury Wing.