A body painting artist has criticised shopping centre bosses in Ashford after he was ordered to cover up his near-naked models.

Artist Max Wragg said it was meant to be a stunning piece of art that went across the bodies of three women, but for some shoppers in County Square it was just too much.

He said: "I had arranged this event in advance and it was unfortunately spoilt by a handful of small-minded people.

"Hundreds of people were walking past and not one made any adverse comments to me, in fact quite a few stopped and asked what it was all about.

"I think that the complainants may have thought that my models had bare breasts, however, this was not the case. They were all wearing nipple covers."

County Square manager Frances Burt said she made the decision after a few complaints from shoppers.

She said: "It is a shopping centre and, while I agreed he could do the body painting, he said there wouldn’t be any nudity.

"While they weren’t completely nude, there were a few complaints."

Mrs Burt added: "I decided we were going to have to do something about it because there were people with children.

"If people go to the festival they have chosen to do so but this was in a public area. But he was fine about it and there wasn’t any problem."

The UK Body Painting Festival kicks off tomorrow at Bridge House in Mersham.

It begins with a painting class in the afternoon before beginning with a full programme of events on Saturday morning.

Mr Wragg added: "This happened despite me visiting the centre during the week and showing the manager pictures of artwork, explaining that the models wore underwear and nipple covers, which she said was fine.

"Last months festival in Austria attracted over 30,000 visitors and I would have liked to see the British festival also reach a mass audience.

"Sadly, my experience on Saturday does not make that very likely."