JEDDAH: Color Theory is an arts and crafts supply shop based in Riyadh. The term color theory is defined as a practical guide to color mixing and the visual effects of specific color combinations.
It offers a wide variety of acrylic and oil-based paints, brushes, colored pencils, oil pastels and spray paints, as well as all the necessary tools required for any given art project.
The owner of Color Theory, Ahmed Mohammed Al-Sunaidi, began to build his own business when he found that artists in Saudi Arabia needed a local art supply shop with the latest and most innovative art and design supplies.
“I began my career as an employee in the private sector. I had no prior experience in art. However, after working for a long while in an industry that was completely different from the field of art, I had a simple desire to leave my work in the private sector and start my own business,” he said.
There are always risks attached to any entrepreneurial venture, but Al-Sunaidi was confident in the art scene that was growing within Saudi Arabia.
“My circumstances gave me the opportunity to quit my job, and during my year of unemployment, I started visiting art galleries around the Kingdom. I would ask artists from where they bought their art supplies, and why they had not purchased them online.
“The artists would always tell me that they preferred to see the colors themselves. They wanted to touch the materials and feel the paintbrushes that they would use before purchasing. So I discovered that there was a need for this type of business,” he said.
Al-Sunaidi saw a colorful future ahead for Saudi Arabia and wanted to help bring it to the masses. “I believe there was a time when Saudi Arabia was gray, and now life is gaining color. Not just because I am now living among colors but also because the people themselves are becoming more colorful. They have started seeing life from a different perspective,” he said.
Color Theory is at 2656 Ash Sheikh Abdullah Al-Anqari, Salah Ad Din, Riyadh 12434. For customer inquiries, they can be reached at +966534883311. Follow them on Instagram for their latest product features and stock at www.Instagram.com/colortheoryksa
Startup of the Week: Adding colors to the Saudi cultural landscape
Startup of the Week: Adding colors to the Saudi cultural landscape
- The artists would always tell me that they preferred to see the colors themselves
Sotheby’s to bring coveted Rembrandt lion drawing to Diriyah
DUBAI: Later this month, Sotheby’s will bring to Saudi Arabia what it describes as the most important Rembrandt drawing to appear at auction in 50 years. Estimated at $15–20 million, “Young Lion Resting” comes to market from The Leiden Collection, one of the world’s most important private collections of 17th-century Dutch and Flemish art.
The drawing will be on public view at Diriyah’s Bujairi Terrace from Jan. 24 to 25, alongside the full contents of “Origins II” — Sotheby’s forthcoming second auction in Saudi Arabia — ahead of its offering at Sotheby’s New York on Feb. 4, 2026. The entire proceeds from the sale will benefit Panthera, the world’s leading organization dedicated to the conservation of wild cats. The work is being sold by The Leiden Collection in partnership with its co-owner, philanthropist Jon Ayers, the chairman of the board of Panthera.
Established in 2006, Panthera was founded by the late wildlife biologist Dr. Alan Rabinowitz and Dr. Thomas S. Kaplan. The organization is actively engaged in the Middle East, where it is spearheading the reintroduction of the critically endangered Arabian leopard to AlUla, in partnership with the Royal Commission for AlUla.
“Young Lion Resting” is one of only six known Rembrandt drawings of lions and the only example remaining in private hands. Executed when Rembrandt was in his early to mid-thirties, the work captures the animal’s power and restless energy with striking immediacy, suggesting it was drawn from life. Long before Rembrandt sketched a lion in 17th-century Europe, lions roamed northwest Arabia, their presence still echoed in AlUla’s ancient rock carvings and the Lion Tombs of Dadan.
For Dr. Kaplan, the drawing holds personal significance as his first Rembrandt acquisition. From 2017 to 2024, he served as chairman of the International Alliance for the Protection of Heritage, of which Saudi Arabia is a founding member.
The Diriyah exhibition will also present, for the first time, the full range of works offered in “Origins II,” a 64-lot sale of modern and contemporary art, culminating in an open-air auction on Jan. 31 at 7.30 pm.
