Ever get asked, “Where’s the best place to find art supplies?” Or perhaps just, “Where do you buy art materials? Online? Or from an actual store?”
Truth be told, for me the answer usually depends on where the sales are. However, a few years ago I thought it would be interesting to find out which art supply stores other artists recommended, so I set up a poll on EmptyEasel and let it run until it seemed like there was a clear winner.
The results are below. . . whether you’re just planning to buy a few artist pencils or a full set of oil paints, I’d suggest checking out these recommendations from fellow artists before you shop!
Where’s the best place to buy art supplies?
Blick Art Materials – www.dickblick.com
195 votes (34%)
Jerry’s Artarama – www.jerrysartarama.com
93 votes (16%)
Art Supply Warehouse – www.artsupplywarehouse.com
54 votes (9%)
Utrecht – www.utrechtart.com
32 votes (6%)
Cheap Joe’s Art Supplies – www.cheapjoes.com
30 votes (5%)
Michael’s Arts & Craft – www.michaels.com
25 votes (4%)
Locally-owned art supply store
22 votes (4%)
Daniel Smith – danielsmith.com
16 votes (3%)
eBay – www.ebay.com
11 votes (2%)
All other art supply stores received 1% or fewer votes. Voting is now closed.
Did the winners surprise you?
Blick is clearly the obvious favorite, with Jerry’s Artarama in a solid second place, and the Art Supply Warehouse just beating out Cheap Joe’s and Utrecht for fourth and fifth. I’m not too surprised at Blick’s numbers because they do have a lot of online advertising (and they usually have a lot of discount sales and free shipping deals, too).
And although I’d never considered buying art supplies on eBay before, it makes sense that you could find some good deals there. Maybe that’s something to check out!
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