Wakefield Trinity Wildcats artist unveils first picture
The first work produced by a West Yorkshire rugby league team's artist in residence has been unveiled.
Jason Wilsher-Mills started the year-long project as Wakefield Trinity Wildcats' artist in September.
He uses a tablet computer to create his own pictures and to create art with young people around the city.
Mr Wilsher-Mill's first picture was prompted by a memory of attending his first game with his father and "seeing the big guys charge into each other."
"Going to the rugby with my dad was the closest time I ever spent with him," he said.
Eventually work produced as part of the project will all be featured as part of a mural that will stretch 200ft (60m) along the length of a stand at the team's stadium.
A time capsule
The mural will incorporate 3,000 self-portraits made by children and a series of paintings representing the club's greatest players.
Wakefield-born Mr Wilsher-Mills, who has a neurological condition and is a wheelchair user, said the team had been "a constant in my life".
Because the pictures are produced using a tablet computer they can be printed as big as "a house" or as small as "a matchbox" he said.
The artist said he hoped the completed mural would be like a time capsule and the children featured in it would eventually bring their own children to the ground.
He said the project should "release the stories contained in the bricks and mortar" of the club's Belle Vue ground and was a tribute to his father who died in 2010.