Artist Lee Merrill Sendall has accused director Danny Boyle of stealing the ideas for the summer's Olympics opening ceremony.

Boyle was praised for his show that marked the start of the successful Games in London but Sendall has claimed that the opening sequence in a countryside field was his original idea.

"On the night of the opening ceremony, I received messages from relatives and friends asking if Danny Boyle had permission to use my idea," The Telegraph quotes Sendall as saying.

"Too many of my concepts and visuals appeared in the ceremony to be shrugged off as coincidence. I would have liked to have been asked if my ideas could be used and I would like proper credit for the project which I put a lot of work into."

The 42-year-old artist submitted his original design named the Large Spiral Mound in 2009 to the 'Artists Taking the Lead' competition.