Exhibition features artwork that came to life during graveyard visit

Mr Mitchell, 67, is one of 21 artists invited by Harewood House to submit artworks inspired by the stately home near Leeds.

The artist, who lives in Chapeltown, Leeds, hopped on his blue Vespa, and headed for the Harewood graveyard. He said: "Because I like graveyards and skeletons I thought I'd do some piece in the Harewood graveyard.

"There's a church hidden in the woods. It's got this wonderful old churchyard stuck at the back of it with graves from 1720 onwards."

He discovered a gravestone with three angels on the top of it.

"The person buried there was an Ann Jackson, who died aged 68, and came from Harewood Bridge which is just down the road," Mr Mitchell said.

He combined a moody shot of Ann's headstone with two old photographs of scarecrows in fields in North Yorkshire.

The finished piece – Ann Jackson and her two guardian angels – which has three panels and measures 12ft long and 4ft high was unveiled at the house's Terrace Gallery on Saturday.The exhibition at the Terrace Gallery runs until September 19.