Is anyone else interested in art?

I am, not that I can do it, I can barely draw a bath. But I mean real art as opposed to crafts, the stuff you go to see in galleries or gets featured on telly. Some art I really can't get on with, like a lot of modern art, cubism, abstract and surrealism. I like painting to be more figurative, but theres also a difference between what I want to look at in a public space like a gallery and what I want to look at, at home. At home I prefer something more gentle, I don't want to be challenged at home, I want something I can relax with, something I can keep looking at and maybe lose myself in and see different things each time I look at it.

I quite like some of the impressionists, like Monet and Van Gough, although I've also seen to many bad copies of both and that puts me off a bit. I like Bruigel the Elder, his pictures are so detailed.

I love some of the Renaisance greats like Carravagio, his use of shadow is amazing, you wouldn't think that a dark space in a picture could say so much. Tintoretto too, I love the realism. But I don't think I'd want to live with either of them, I think they need proper gallery space to appreciate them properly

To have at home I like landscapes, or some animal pictures, I have a lovely portrait of a bull, I don't want people intruding into my private world and I'm not a fan of portraits, but I would love to have one done, just to see how somebody else see's me and what they'd choose to enhance.

I went to a gallery with someone the other day to show them some lovely pictures, the lady uses leaves and makes forest scenes from them, he looked at them and said 'why don't you go to B&Q and get some wall paper and cut a square off that and frame it'. I was mortified, the artist was in the shop. It just seems some people have no taste, but also the way in which we look at things is so different.