Google Art Project

If you have yet to check out the new Art Project by Google, then by all means I suggest you start exploring this very moment. This amazing new website allows you to visit the world's most famous art museums by a simple click of a button. I really get a kick out of gazing at some of my favorite works of art from the comfort of a cozy arm chair (I adore Botticelli's The Birth of Venus, as shown above, which is located at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence). For those times in life when a plane ticket to Europe seem out-of-reach (read: now), it's comforting to know I can still indulge in a bit of culture without breaking the bank.

I remember the first time I saw Holbein's The Ambassadors (above) at the National Gallery in London. At the time I was an English student at UCLA and had the supreme good fortune to spend the summer studying Shakespeare in London. I have long been a fervent anglophile, but I credit my abiding love for London with this first-ever trip to The National Gallery. I remember feeling mesmerized by the rich, saturated use of color, as well as by the weighty stares of the gentlemen staring out at me from the canvas. The painting is so heavy with importance.

And here's an up close shot of Van Gogh's The Starry Night. Check out those thick brushstrokes! Wouldn't it be fantastic if Google continued to add more museums from around the world to the website? I'm looking at you, Museu Picasso.

{Images via Art Project by Google}