AN ARTWORK that “reflects the mood” of Bradford people in the aftermath of the Valley Parade fire disaster has been presented to the Premier League as a thank you for a donation to the city’s Burns Unit.

The three-dimensional work incorporates a painting and a claret and amber flat cap and scarf.

Ajay Mahajan, director of the Bradford Burns Unit, composed the artwork and it was painted by Paul Town.

The Premier League donated £25,000 to the Burns Unit’s fundraising appeal that was started last year to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the fire.

Mr Mahajan said: “I had always wanted to present something unique to the Premier League in acknowledgement of their magnanimous gesture of donating £25,000. Something that they would be proud to display in their headquarters in London.

“There has been a wide variety of fundraising activity through the year to help us achieve our target and I wanted to create an artwork with representation from some of the art that came out of the fundraising events.

“Accordingly, I composed an artwork and approached Paul Town to do the painting for it. Once the painting was done, I made it three-dimensional by incorporating the flat cap and scarf designed by Jeremy, Gavin and Liz of Turnstylewear. I had to cut the flat cap and scarf and sew them on to the canvas to make it appear as if the subject was actually wearing them. I then approached Chris Robinson of Embroidery in House to embroider ‘56’ on a patch that I sewed on to the canvas as a breast pocket. Chris, Jamie Boyle and his friends produced the claret hoodies in remembrance of the 56.

“Although not an easy job, I managed to get there in the end and looking at the finished art work, I so wanted to keep it for myself!”

Mr Town, of Stadium Portraits, raised more than £3,000 for the Burns Unit through sales of his paintings. He said “It was an honour to be asked to do the painting. I wanted the subject to represent the public in the aftermath of the Bradford fire. Those were the days of industrial Bradford when the factories were thriving.

“The subject in the painting reflects the mood of the people of Bradford following the fire - sceptical, yet hopeful for the future of Bradford.”

He added: “Having been there at the time and being directly affected by the fire, I painted from my heart portraying my feelings at the time.”