I was introduced to art appreciation in the 4th grade, where Mrs. Green was sponsoring Texas UIL competition in that area. I took 30 art pictures
home and memorized them in one day according to my mother. I think her memory is bad on this point, but i definitely was entranced and enjoyed
several of the pictures all classical.
My artistic efforts in those years were pretty limited, mostly of ancient scooners and cars.
My 1st choice of art styles is impressionistic and Van Gogh.
There is a website, i don't know how they got my name, that gets the public to be juries of artists paintings/photos/sculptures/mixed media each month if the public person will comment on 20 artists. You can skip over ones you just don't feel you are good at evaluating at all. I have participated so far about 7 times. In the competition, the artists that win get their works displayed somewhere in a gallery i don't know where.
My favorite artists have been Monet, the contemporary Ukranian Rusakova family, and Van Gogh. Below are links to the Rusakova websites. I have commissioned some works from them and they charge very reasonable prices for doing so.
http://www.alexandrarusakova.com
and http://www.flickr.com/photos/tatianarusakova/