A NEW Guinness world record was set in Armidale when local martial arts teacher Anthony Kelly succeeded in catching paintballs fired at him at the weekend.

However it appears that Mr Kelly's world record is not the first to be set in Armidale and validated by the Guinness record keeping organisation.

In fact, the Guinness people recognised that Armidale broke the record for the world's largest painting at the University of New England (UNE) some 12 years ago in May 1990.

The painting was measured at 102.93m x 65.38m and was made up of a patchwork of individual smaller paintings a little larger than one meter square in size.

Students of Robb College at UNE undertook to create the world's largest painting as their 1990 fundraising project.

The students enlisted the help of well-known Australian artist, Ken Done to help them use the project as a fundraiser for the UNICEF based Robert Nesdal Memorial Fund.

As an ambassador for UNICEF, Done decorated seven sections of the painting, which were then auctioned at the college's annual art exhibition.

Maintenance officer at Robb College, Cam Bastow remembers how the painting was a real community effort.

"Everybody in Armidale, every school, the Girl Guides, the Scouts were involved,” said Mr Bastow.

"Everybody was given a certain amount of calico, and the kids all painted a square.”

The record appears on page 146 of the 1991 Guinness Book of World Records and was broken a few years later by an American university.

Of the seven original squares painted by Ken Done, two are now on display at Robb College.