Show HN: Explore color palettes inspired by 3000 master painter artworks

A new project showing off color palettes pulled from 3,000 famous paintings sounds like pure internet catnip: art, design, and instant inspiration in one neat package. And sure enough, some people were immediately ready to put it to work. One fan said it should be plugged straight into design tools so people can automatically build better-looking websites. Another was fully sold, saying they’d use it every week for their own art and even asking for an API — basically the coder way of saying, "I need more of this in my life."

But this wouldn’t be a proper internet comment section without at least one dramatic record scratch. The biggest hot take came from a self-described “expert viewer” of Baumgartner Restoration, who argued the whole idea may be misleading because many old paintings now look extra brown thanks to dirty, aged varnish. In other words: the palettes might reflect centuries of grime, not the painters’ true vision. Ouch. That instantly turned a cute art tool into a mini authenticity debate.

And then came the smaller, delightfully petty chaos: one commenter popped in to announce the creator’s hello email bounces, while another declared war on the site’s auto page-switching scroll, saying they “absolutely hate it.” So the mood was clear: people love the concept, want more features, but they also brought the classic internet combo of nitpicks, usability rage, and one surprisingly fierce argument about whether the colors are even the real colors.