AN artist who has worked on some of Hollywood's biggest films has been capturing the mood of Swindon.

Russian-born Vlad Holst has just completed work on the Da Vinci Code movie out this week, starring Tom Hanks, and has also worked on the Harry Potter films.

Alexandra House conference centre in Wroughton has now commissioned him for an exhibition to decorate the building.

Mr Holst trained as a painter, before moving on to become a photographer and graphic designer.

His role in films like the Da Vinci Code sees him working on the computer-generated graphics which make up the backdrop for the action in the movies.

He is involved in the process of making the graphics look more real to the eye.

And although all his work is behind the scenes, it does earn him a mention in the film credits.

Mr Holst, who now lives in London, said: "It is interesting but challenging work, but it is very much in the background.

"A lot of my work will involve me taking texture' pictures, which would then be used in the generated images."

The images are used throughout the film.

He has produced a series of pictures, which will feature inside the recently-built conference centre in Wroughton.

The company said it wanted some modern pictures which would not only relate to the building's modern design, but also reflect its location near Swindon.

So Mr Holst spent two days exploring the town looking for locations that were a bit different and expressed the mood of the town.

"It was interesting work," he said.

"It was not like working in places such as Prague or Rome, where photographers would normally think of interesting urban pictures "Swindon was quite challenging, and it was often a case of getting all the factors to come together in an instant to get that perfect picture.

"One of my favourites was an area in the west of the town.

"I had to get there by bus, and there was a Windmill reflecting in the glass of one of the buildings, and the sun came out, and everything came together at that moment."

General manager of the exhibition centre, Toni Shepard, said: "We were keen to have something unique and these pictures have become a talking point.

"The work was commissioned through London-based Project Art and we are really pleased to be able to display something which is so striking."

The exhibition centre is built on the site of the former Princess Alexandra RAF Hospital.