Color is one of the fundamental elements of paintings. This paper proposes a set of measurements for color usage in a painting, including basic color elements, global and local color harmony, and color statistical properties, characterizing color features from both the spatial domain and frequency domain.

We also collect a painting set including 1059 abstract paintings, 1012 oil paintings, and 1003 Chinese ink paintings. Applying the measurements to this painting set, we are able to observe the roles of color in the three genres of paintings. We report our findings in detail on the effectiveness of these measurements. 

Chinese ink paintings are significantly different from abstract and oil paintings in color usage, while abstract paintings emphasize color more than the two other genres. The measurements may serve as tools for the classification of paintings. The work is the first of this kind and points to further investigation of color usage in other forms of art and design.