Ordering Art Materials

Studio View

Yesterday I took a nice long breakfast at the tea table, and ordered some much needed art supplies. This can be a fun activity if approached with the right mindset, or it can be stressful if you don't know what to get. Sometimes I get questions from people about how I go about this, so I will answer them now for the benefit of those interested.

First of all I like to do all of my shopping over the Internet. This is not only because one can save a lot of money, but because these days it is hard to find art stores that have everything you need in one place and in stock at the same time. Dick Blick is my online store of choice, they ship fast and cheap and have just about everything I need. Mister Art or Jerry's Artorama come to mind too.

When I buy paint I get the 250 ml tubes of oil colors from Windsor & Newton, Gamblin, Old Holland, and Rembrandt. This is because I do big paintings and always want to have colors on hand when I need them. I buy refined linseed oil, damar varnish, and turpentine from Windsor and Newton.

For canvas I order from the same website (except when I want something special like herringbone weave then you have to go somewhere else).
Some canvases I like are Claessens oil primed linen and Artifix oil primed linen. Both of these come in various weaves, so I stock my studio with very smooth ones for small works and rougher heavier weaves for large pieces. I order canvas in rolls by the yard and stretch it myself. You can buy stretcher pliers and a staple gun for this. I buy the Blick heavy duty stretcher bars and the quality is very consistent (they are never warped). Sometimes when I buy an unprimed canvas roll, I will size it with Gamblin's PVA size glue and follow with two coats of Gamblin oil ground.

So far all this can be obtained from Blick! I have not mentioned brushes yet. I actually do recommend visiting a store to feel them in person, or observe what your friends or teachers use. My favorites are long flats (mongoose), long flat bristles, small rounds in synthetic, hog bristle, and sable. Some brands I have bought are Silver Brush Renaissance series, Isabey, Windsor & Newton, Da Vinci... Lately a just ordered long flat mongooses from Rosemary, an English company that specializes in brushes. You can never have too many, and you need all types for what works on one surface or stage of a painting may not work in another. I tend not to buy nice brushes over a certain size because you can get the same effects with house painting brushes.

Anyway I hope this helps! One last word of advice is to stick with a familiar set of tools for a while and make additions (like new pigments, mediums, etc.) only every so often. This way you can stay in control and observe the effects that these changes make to the way you work. You want good quality materials that serve you well and make your work shine and live up to your highest standards, but ultimately you should not get carried away with too many of them at once.