For walls, canvases, and toenails. Including Alex Katz’s trusty orange, an interior designer’s preferred pale pink, and a mime’s ideal white.

Ryan White on Portola Paints’s Acrylic: Northern Lights, Flat
“I’ll use this in a hallway to give it a real sense of openness—it’s a crisp white with a hint of gray, which helps to create a sense of mood rather than just clinical blankness, which can happen with a lot of whites. On furniture, too, it could add a note of depth.” $58 per ­gallon; portolapaints.com.