DANIEL SMITH’s universe of pigments is a long quest for me as an artist. I love them all – I can’t resist some of their granulating pigments because they are just gorgeous. I’ve even had some shift in my color preferences. For example, I never liked violets at all … then I met Carbazole Violet, tried it and I was completely sold. All the colors I use are beautiful and sometimes I even prefer the exact pigment, like Pyrrol Scarlet (that we call “beautiful red” with one of my students) or Phthalos.   —Mikhail Starchenko