God is in the details, they say, and they’re not wrong. If you take a closer look, you may find something very surprising… for example, that you are quite an artist.

Today, we take a look at what happens when thanks to pure coincidence, some luck, and a little je ne sais quoi (“I don’t know what” in French), people come up with impressive pieces of unintentional art, from a paint stain that looks like a magic forest which would leave Rembrandt in awe to an accidental drop of paint that probably turned out better than an actual painting ever would.

So below we wrapped up some of the most interesting unintentional “art masterpieces” that are neither quite art nor quite a masterpiece, yet still very impressive. Upvote your favorites as you scroll!

Psst! Don’t forget to check out our previous feature with more accidental art.

#1 The Wear And Scuff Marks On This Boat Look Like An Island In The Sea

Image credits: supremo92

#2 A Rock-Created, Bird-Shaped Window Art On My Car

Image credits: AshlynnMartell

#3 Pigeon Poops Portrait Of Itself On A Leaf

Image credits: Koda_Has_A_Top_Hat

Interestingly, accidental art is not a new concept born on online forums and cultivated by various subreddits. The idea that art can stem from something completely unintentional can be traced back to Leonardo Da Vinci, who, scientists claim, gave some interesting advice to an artist struggling from creative block.

Christopher Turner, a British writer and art historian, quotes Da Vinci in an essay published on Tate: “If you look upon an old wall covered with dirt, or the odd appearance of some streaked stones, you may discover several things like landscapes, battles, clouds, uncommon attitudes, humorous faces, draperies, etc. Out of this confused mass of objects, the mind will be furnished with an abundance of designs and subjects perfectly new.”

#4 My Windshield Looked Like A Watercolour

Image credits: Rain_in_Arcadia

#5 Rust Formed On This Old Spool Of Wire In One Of The Coolest Ways I’ve Ever Seen

Image credits: ggpurplecobras

#6 I Took A Picture Of This Strange Lighting Under A Bridge At The San Antonio River Walk

Image credits: Photoproguy

This fresh idea proposed by Da Vinci, Turner argues, encouraged the viewer to search for hidden meaning in chaos. “It referred back to myths about the origin of art in accidental shapes. In De Statua, Leon Battista Alberti supposed that artistic imitation emerged when our ancestors came across a gnarled tree trunk or a piece of clay, whose contours ‘needed only a slight change’ to look strikingly like something else.”

#7 This Paint I Was Mixing Looked Like A Little Forest Planet

Image credits: momus_the_waste

#8 I Snapped A Photo Of My Dog Through A Window Screen That Looks Like An Old Painting

Image credits: PhatWalda

#9 The Way This Car Froze

Image credits: LAINKORNE

The artists were mesmerized by the idea that natural artifacts and nature as a whole can be full of artistic readymades, “if only you are patient enough to look for them.”

Throughout the years, for artists and historians alike, accidental artistic gestures like stains or blots offered a new mode of interpretation. “The meaningless stain, which invites the universal urge to project meaning, is the humble stage on which all arguments about art are rehearsed,” Turner concludes.