Isabel Dalhousie also has thoughts on art, and I am presenting them here, because they so agree with mine; Hopper and Vettriano are two of my favorites :

“Hen left the room, and Isabel leaned back into the sofa and looked about her. It was well-furnished, unlike many rented flats, which quickly develop a well-used look. There were prints on the wall – the landlord’s taste, presumably mixed with that of the tenant: a view of the Falls of Cyde (landlord); A Bigger Splash, by Hockney, and Amateur Philosophers by Vettriano (tenants); and Iona, by Peploe (landlord). She smiled at the Vettriano – he was deeply disapproved of by the artistic establishment in Edinburgh, but he remained resolutely popular. Why was this ? Because his figurative paintings said something about people’s lives (at least about the lives of the people who danced on the beach in formal clothing); they had a narrative in the same way in which Edward Hopper’s paintings did. That was why there were so many poems inspired by Hopper; it was because there was a now-read-on note to everything he painted. Why are the people there ? What are they thinking now ? What are they going to do now ?”

Above : “Chop Suey” by Edward Hopper

Edward Hopper’s paintings indeed do have that “now-read-on” feeling about them. Each of his painting is a snapshot of people doing something – it could be something as prosaic as reading a newspaper, but they leave you curious.