Here is a beautiful interactive interpretation of Van Gogh's Starry Night. You need sound to have the full experience. The creator of this amazing video, Petros Vrellis, credits the software openFrameworks for allowing this to be possible. According to their website openFrameworks is an open source C++ tookit for creative coding.

Of course, Van Gogh's masterpiece is amazing in its own right. I wonder what he would think of Vrellis's interpretation.

The Starry Night was painted by Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890) in 1889. The original is currently housed in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.  More information about the painting and artist can be  found at the VanGogh Gallery site. This work is considered to be of the Post-Impressionist style. According to the Museum of Modern Art Post-Imressionism "can be loosely defined as a rejection of the Impressionists’ concern for the naturalistic depiction of light and colour in favour of an emphasis on abstract qualities or symbolic content." The time period is roughly 1886 to 1905 and in addition to Van Gogh, includes the work of artists such as Paul Cézanne, Paul Gauguin, and George Seurat. They each had unique styles such as  VanGogh's impasto which is taking a thick application of paint (usually oil) that makes no attempt to look smooth. It purposely is textured to show off brush and palette knife marks.



Do you want to learn more about art? Here are some places to visit

Smithsonian's Everything Art

Famous Paintings - Art Appreciation Lessons for Kids

Artcyclopedia

 Image: The Starry Night from Wikimedia Commons in the Public Domain