ABSTRACT
David R. Hay was a Scottish decorative artist and author on colour and art. He showed an aptitude for drawing, leading to an apprenticeship with Gavin Beugo, a heraldic and decorative painter in Edinburgh. Mere matters of taste, however, are subjects up-on which both nations and individuals differ widely; and there are no productions of this kind, however extravagant or absurd, that have not their admirers while they bear the gloss of novelty or stamp of fashion. It is seldom that the young men who are admitted to our drawing academies consider their studies as merely intended to improve them in the useful arts to which they may be bred. They almost uniformly imbibe the idea of rising into a higher sphere; and seem to have no other ulterior object in their studies than to leave their humble calling, at the expiry of their indentures, and become artists.
