Pleiades in
Van Gogh Style

I adopted Van Gogh's The Starry Night art style to create this impression of the Seven Sisters Cluster. I love how this style emphasize on the movement of gas clouds surrounding this open cluster, depicting how these stars are gravitationally bound to each other. In both myth and science, Messier 45 are considered to be sibling stars as they were both from the same cloud of gas and dust some 100 million years ago.

From the most right to top center you can see Celaeno, Taygeta and Asterope. The four brightest in the center is Maia, Electra, Merope and Alcyone. Meanwhile two bright stars on the left side are Atlas and Pleione.

Pleiades/Seven Sisters/Messier 45 is an open star cluster consisted of middle-aged, hot B-type stars that formed about 100 million years ago. It's the nearest star cluster and Messier object to Earth, and one of the most prominent star cluster in the night sky

The whirling bright clouds around the Pleiades stars in this painting represent independent dust clouds in the interstellar space which the stars are currently passing. So, this reflection nebula surrounding Messier 45 is totally unrelated to the stars.

The use of shades of blue and white created spiral effect and draws attention to the stars, meanwhile the swirling brush strokes give the impression that these stars are alive and moving.