A painting capturing east Oxford's multi-cultural community will go on display as part of an exhibition celebrating this year's Cowley Road Carnival.

Artist Ali Clements

Photographs of carnival day last month, when about 16,000 visitors took part in the festivities, will go up beside the 3ft by 4ft artwork.

The week-long exhibition opens at Fusion, in Princes Street, on Thursday (July 15).

Artist Ali Clements spent two years creating the brightly-coloured painting, based on the close relationship between Christians and Muslims in east Oxford, in time for the carnival on June 13.

It shows SS Mary and John Church, in Cowley Road, and the Manzil Way mosque, alongside images of people from different ethnic backgrounds joining together for the carnival.

Postcards featuring the painting will be on sale during the exhibition. Half the proceeds from sales of the £1 cards will be donated to the church and the mosque.

Mrs Clements, who lives in Bullingdon Road and is a member of SS Mary and John Church, said: "I have lived along Cowley Road for 30 years and love this area.

"I get fed up of people criticising Cowley Road -- it's a lovely, safe place to live with a very close community between all residents.

"The carnival really is a celebration of everything that is good here and I wanted to capture that."

Carnival co-ordinator Henrietta Gill said 50 of the best photographs taken on carnival day would be on show.

Plans for next year's fifth carnival, on Sunday, June 12, are already under way.

Ms Gill said: "The carnival was an absolute success and this exhibition really shows that. The pictures and painting show exactly what the carnival is about -- an event for Cowley Road's multi-cultural community."