Artists - Neil Harvey

Neil Harvey put the finishing touches to his mural depicting the Resurrection at Our Lady and St Brigid's Church in Northfield, Birmingham.

A mural that has taken its painter nine years in the planning to execution was being completed Monday April 3, 2000.

Neil Harvey put the finishing touches to his vivid mural, the Resurrection, which depicts Christ rising Heaven-wards in front of four startled guards.

The inspirational work has transformed the dreary interior of St Brigid's Roman Church Catholic Church, in the Birmingham district of Northfield, into a vibrant visitor attraction worthy of Renaissance Italy.

Painted in Michael Harding oils and with the advice from conservators at the Instituto Centrale del Restauro in Rome, it fills the apse, a 25 ft high domed recess behind the altar, light the 100ft nave. Neil Harvey, a 39 year old bachelor who trained at the Royal Academy, said he wanted to create a work that would bring "a sense of hope and joy" to the lives of worshippers who, like himself, lived in a grey industrial suburb.

If you wish to email the artist Neil Harvy: artresurrection@hotmail.com