A painter has teamed up with Ham House to bring historic paintings collection to life through a major conservation project.

Painter and Royal Academician Stephen Farthing created three contemporary paintings in response to the 17th century house’s ghostly atmosphere.

The new works hang in the frames of historic paintings, which have been removed for conservation, on the Great Staircase and in the hall beneath.

The painter said: “After the mixing of the colours, most important were the narratives, I wanted to demonstrate how happily new and old could sit together, that the angles you experience paintings from as you climb and descend staircases can become a part of the drama of seeing, and not a distraction or inconvenience, and finally how little our sense of mischief has changed over time.”