macOS Meets Van Gogh
Four of my favourite OS X/macOS wallpapers reimagined through AI in the artistic style of Vincent Van Gogh.
Following the unexpected success of Big Starry Sur, I am releasing a new wallpaper pack featuring four OS X/macOS wallpapers in the artistic style of the late Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh.
History
In early March, I posted a photo on social media titled 'macOS Big Sur in the style of Van Gogh’s Starry Night' an AI-generated mashup of macOS Big Sur's default wallpaper attempted in the art style of Van Gogh's The Starry Night. Not being hyperbolic, the wallpaper exploded in popularity. Hundreds messaged me for a link, and when I uploaded it onto Google Drive, the surge to download it was so enormous that Google stopped access to the drive for several hours. It wasn't till the following day that I could finally host it on my webspace and provide a reliable link for people to download it.
That response to Big Starry Sur vastly exceeded my expectations. So positive was the reception that it inspired me to create another collection of four AI-generated macOS wallpapers, again inspired by Van Gogh. Enjoy.
Vincent Van Gogh
Quick history lesson: Vincent Van Gogh was a Dutch-born painter born during the impressionist/post-impressionist period. Selling just one painting during his short 37-year life (1853-1890), Van Gogh's artwork only became famous posthumously. His works, including thousands of drawings and over 900 oil paintings, were primarily created within a narrow 10-year window before his death.
Van Gogh is perhaps most well known for his many self-portrait paintings and works like his 1889 The Starry Night, 1890 Almond Blossoms, and his 1888 Sunflowers series. His adoption of vivid colours and energetic brush strokes are perhaps two of the most notable artistic qualities of this post-impressionist painter; a man who struggled mightily with his mental health and desire to make an impression in the artistic world.
Process
These images were all created using the Midjourney, an AI model that generates images based on prompts provided by the user. Each image featured is the end result from hundreds of prompts, iterations, and creative variations supplied to Midjourney before I was satisfied with the result. From there, images were upscaled, sharpened and textured in Pixelmator Pro before being cropped and formatted for the Mac, iPhone, and iPad.
Wallpapers
This series utilizes four of my favourite OS X/mac OS Wallpapers: Lion, Mountain Lion, El Capitan, and Big Sur and tries to recreate them in the post-impressionist style of Van Gogh. Each wallpaper is available for the iPad, Mac, and iPhone. Enjoy!
Big Sur Take II
The first work is another take on macOS Big Sur's abstract hill wallpaper. But rather than referencing The Starry Night, as I did in my first post, I pointed Midjourney to use paintings from Van Gogh's Wheatfield series. After numerous iterations, the result is this stunning & vibrant wheat field at sunset with rolling hills off in the distance.
The Starry Mountain Lion
This second work is based on one of my favourite Apple wallpapers from OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion. Released in 2012, Mountain Lion featured the spiral galaxy NGC 3190 located a meagre 79 Million Light Years away from Earth. This photograph of NGC 3190 has always been mesmerizing, and I adore Apple's choice of Blues and Yellows to colourize it for their 10.8 desktop wallpaper. It was a perfect choice for a more minimal and abstract wallpaper to include in this collection.
Wheat Field with El Capitan
This interpretation of OS X 10.11's wallpaper takes and remixes Yosemite's famous El Capitan. Bold brush strokes and vivid colours reference the palette of OS X El Capitan's signature wallpaper, with a foreground and character inspired by Van Gogh's Wheatfield series.
Lion with Cypresses
Lion with Cypresses was inspired by OS X 10.7, whose signature wallpaper is the beautiful Andromeda Galaxy, which was colourized with a mix of yellows, pinks, and blues for the official OS release. Those colours and the galaxy motif were integrated into a wallpaper that blended Van Gogh's 1889 Wheat Field with Cypresses and The Starry Night, creating a lively, saturated foreground and a vivid cosmic night sky that dances across the digital canvas.
In Sum
It feels like magic to have software that can create these unique and beautiful works based solely on text prompts. The growth of AI technologies over the last several years has provided an exciting (and slightly unsettling) peek at previously unimaginable new tools for creative development.
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