Monet's Garden
an impressionist pond that moves in the wind

What you see on every new tab

Monet's Garden is a painted Giverny-style garden that moves. A curtain of willow hangs across the top, a rose-covered iron arch stands over a white bench, and stone steps lead down to a lily pond that fills the lower half of the screen with a rippling reflection of everything above it.

It is built from well over ten thousand brush dabs placed from a fixed seed, so it is the same painting on every tab. Only the life in it changes.

• Wind: The foliage sways clump by clump, willow fronds and reeds bend most at their tips, and a gust builds every 6 to 14 seconds and dies away.
• The pond: The water is the painted scene mirrored and pulled through moving ripples, with pale streaks drifting on it. Up to twelve rings spread at once, set off by insects, fish, petals and your pointer.
• Koi: Five faint orange-and-cream koi glide under the surface, fading in and out of view, and now and then one flicks into a burst of speed.
• Insects: Fourteen midges dart over the water and sometimes touch down, and two blue dragonflies hover, dash and dip, each touch leaving a ring.
• Birds and petals: Every 7 to 18 seconds one or two birds cross the sky, and about a third swoop down to skim the pond. In stronger wind, rose petals blow off the arch and float away on the water.

Two shaders run it. One draws each brush dab as a small textured stroke that bends with its own wind weight; the other turns the lower half into water by reading the finished painting upside down through ripple noise.

What it reacts to

• Mouse: Move the pointer over the pond and it trails rings behind it. A fast sweep anywhere pushes a local gust through the leaves in the direction you moved.
• Music: With music sync on, bass strengthens the wind, mids make the rings spread faster, treble makes the midges dart more sharply, and a strong kick makes a koi flick or sends a bird across.
• Sound: A blackbird singing in a garden with rustling trees; after dark, frogs at a small pond. Sound starts soft on a new install, and you can turn it down or off right on the New Tab.
• Night: The garden turns moonlit teal and indigo, a moon and stars come out at top right, the water darkens with silver streaks, midges become blinking fireflies, the birds and dragonflies stop, and the koi fade.

Free or Pro?Pro

Ambient New Tab is free to install, with five free themes. Monet's Garden is a Pro theme. Pro is $5.99 a month or $39.99 a year, cancel anytime, or $59 once for Pro Forever, and it unlocks every Pro theme, music sync, and every new theme as we release it. You can preview Monet's Garden full screen before you buy: open the Themes panel and rest your mouse on it. Changed your mind? 14-day refund, no questions.

How to get it

1. Add Ambient New Tab to Chrome.
2. Open a new tab and click the Themes pill in the bottom-right corner.
3. Pick Monet's Garden. Done.

From day to night

Monet's Garden follows the sun where you live and turns to night after sunset. You can also pin day or night in the Themes panel.

Questions

Is this a copy of a Monet painting?

No. It is an original garden in the spirit of his Giverny pictures, painted by code from brush dabs placed by a seeded random generator. Nothing is traced or photographed, so there is no image to stretch, and the strokes are drawn fresh at your screen's resolution.

Is Monet's Garden free?

It is a Pro theme. Pro is $5.99 a month or $39.99 a year, cancel anytime, or $59 once for Pro Forever. It unlocks every Pro theme, music sync, and every new theme as it is released.

Why does my pointer make rings on the water but not on the trees?

The pond and the garden react differently. Below the waterline, about halfway down, a moving pointer drops ring after ring, bigger the faster you go. Above it, only a quick sweep matters: it pushes a gust through the foliage in the direction of travel.

Does the moon show in the pond?

Yes. The moon and its seventy stars are painted into the picture the pond reflects, so at night they show in the water as well as the sky. Night follows sunset as calculated for New York on your computer's clock; the Day/Night button in the Themes panel can force either.

Does it work on my phone?

No. It's a desktop browser extension for Chrome on Windows, macOS, Linux and ChromeOS. If you're reading this on a phone, send yourself the link.

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