@bebasim Thanks for the lovely comments :)
Many of the paintings in the painting replacement mod are trait driven. In the past when I have played sims with traits that I tend to avoid these days because I don't like conflict I would get some really interesting ones. I also used to direct my sims a lot more than I do now. My non-artistic sims only paint when they roll wishes to and tend not to get very skilled so I don't get to see many finished paintings from them. My artistic sims, of course, will paint whenever there is a free easel in the house so I get lots from them. I guess that's why I see a lot of the same paintings over and over. Some of the best paintings I have seen came out of my 5x5 save.
The boys have one more week at uni then they go home and hopefully live more than the 8 days I allotted for the elder stage. Given the short life span I am using, I actually gave elders more than what they should have had but, although I let them die, I really don't like it when they do.