PATIENTS at an Oxford hospital can now enjoy the latest Ashmolean installation from the comfort of the waiting room.

Three walls at the Oxford Eye Hospital, based at the John Radcliffe, have been papered with enlarged images of skies, taken from famous paintings in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.

Artist Nicky Hirst was commissioned by the hospital to transform the drab and dreary waiting rooms, after the hospital received a generous donation from a former patient.

Ms Hirst said: “When first visiting the waiting areas I was struck by how stage like and unconnected from the outside world they felt.

“Bearing in mind this sense of removal I immediately wanted to bring the ‘outside in’ and create a vista of some sort.

“Given the site’s context and the many and varied ways people see the world – both literally and meta-phorically – I wanted to make works that would be calming and amorphous.

“I also wanted to reference the location geographically without being too specific.”

The paintings used are The White Cloud by Samuel Palmer, Gravel Pit on Shotover Hill, near Oxford by William Turner and Summer Sunset by John Constable.

The wallpaper features a small sky section of the painting.

A copy of the full painting is then hung on the wall alongside.

Ruth Charity, arts co-ordinator at the hospital, said £7,000 was funding by donation from the patient, Sue Woolway.

She said: “This has completely transformed the area.

“The whole space looks so much more open.”