Category: Art shops

Art Supply shops in Athens – Antoniadis

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Art Antoniadis is a smallish shop on Zaimi and they cater primarily for painters – it is the only shop that carries a selection of large easels. Reading the reviews of the other art shops I feel like I’m doing Antoniadis an injustice because I don’t have so much to write, but the reason for it is plain and simple that I hardly use oils and recently haven’t used acrylics much either.

antoniadis

So, what have they got? (Occasionally they also do weekend open-air painting lessons, by the way.)

Watercolors

They have almost a full selection of both Van Gogh and Rembrandt half pans and also Van Gogh tubes if I’m not mistaken.

Coloured pencils

Actually I’m not even sure if they had any of those – might have been a few basic children’s sets, but definitely no more.

Gouache, tempera and acrylics

Everything from Royal Talens – full Rembrandt line and full Amsterdam line.

Oil paints

Same as acrylics, a full selection from Royal Talens – Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Art Creation and Cobra.

Markers

Amsterdam acrylic markers – nice touch, because I don’t think any other store carries this line.

Printmaking

Occasionally they have some brayers.

Paper and canvas

A small selection of blocks, mainly for sketching. They have different types of canvas both in rolls and stretched and also prepare stretched canvases for order.

Easels

Different types of large ones.

You can find out more about them on their website and Facebook page

Art supply shops in Athens – Plaisio

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Plaisio has split its shop into three different ones on Stournari – there is one for stationery and computer-related stuff, one for office furniture and one for art supplies. As Plaisio is a chain store, they are one of the few, if not the only store, where the selection of art supplies is steady – meaning that their selection of brands and products is not large, but then again it does not change often.

plaisio_web

So, what do they offer?

Watercolors

They have a good selection of Winsor and Newton half-pans and tubes (both Cotman and artist grade) as well as Ecoline liquid watercolors.

Coloured pencils

Full range of Othello dry pastel pencils, and Faber-Castell sets and individual pencils.

Gouache, tempera and acrylics

Full selection of Talens gouache tubes, full range of Van Gogh and Winsor and Newton small tubes of acrylics, Plaisio’s own Sentio range of acrylics in large bottles (250 ml) and recently they’ve also got a modest range of chalk paints. They also carry different painting mediums, both for oil, acrylic and watercolor.

Oil paints

Van Gogh and Winsor and Newton small tubes of oils, full range of both.

Markers

A rather incomplete selection of individual Promarkers, but a number of Promarker sets. A full range of Tombow markers and most importantly, Plaisio is one of the few places that always or nearly always has Sakura Pigma Micron fineliners (01, 02, 03, 04, 05 and 08) and they also have the range of Rotring technical pens.

Printmaking

They carry the best beginner set of lino carving tools – a box with 5 Sakura lino gouges. They also have some lino and a small selection of brayers, but no printmaking inks.

Paper

A steady selection of Winsor and Newton blocks, ranging from sketching paper to heavy cartridge to cold press (NOT) watercolor to canvas-textured oil and acrylic paper. I’m almost sure that they also have large sheets of Winsor and Newton NOT.

 

You can see their selection on their website.

 

Art supply shops in Athens – Art Center

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Art Center is another one of the cluster of art supply shops on Stournari. Up till about a year ago (or more? not exactly sure right now) it used to occupy the smallish rooms on the corner of Stournari and Tzortz, now overtaken by ‘Β’ Art Cafe. It was a truly labyrinthine store, where one could discover all kinds of weird and wonderful things if you just bothered to look around long enough.

Now they’ve moved half a block down opposite to the newsstand (periptero) into larger rooms, but the labyrinth of shelves has recreated itself and offers equal joy of discovery. The steady customers of Art Center are architecture students, but they do have something for everyone.

artcenter_web

So, what can you find in Art Center supply-wise?

Watercolors

Individual Van Gogh and Winsor and Newton half pans and various small sets – occasionally they have an excellent little Lukas pocket set that I haven’t noticed anywhere else. They also have a somewhat random selection of Ecoline liquid watercolors.

Coloured pencils

Rather good selection of different sets, and also individual Koh-I-Noor pencils.

Gouache, tempera and acrylics

Winsor and Newton small tubes. Back in the days they also used to have Pebeo gouache, but cannot remember if they still carry it. As far as acrylics go – there is a decent selection of Talens Amsterdam and a full range of Lukas.

Oil paints etc

Same with acrylics – there is a selection of Schmincke oils, but not a huge one. There is, however a selection of different gessoes in various price ranges. They also have a good range of Flame spray paints.

Markers

Almost a full range of Copic markers, some Winsor and Newton Promarkers, different blocks of marker paper.

Printmaking

Tiny random selection of printmaking inks, some student-level lino-and woodcutting tools, some embossing tools. A couple of brayers as well.

Paper and canvas

They have their own blocks of kraft and newsprint for sketching in different sizes (A5-A3), usually different Arches and Fabriano watercolor blocks and large sheets, Canson watercolor and sketching blocks and local black softcover sketchbooks that actually have very nice paper (tolerates even watercolor).
They’ve got some stretched canvases of smaller size.

You can find more details on their website or Facebook.

 

Art supply shops in Athens – Batis

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Athens has its share of little art supply shops tucked away in the city, and I’ve already made a post with the list over the ones I know (and for the most part have visited). Hence, now it seems as a logical next step to introduce them one by one and show what one can find in each. All the shops I’m going to write about, carry the typical art supplies like brushes, pencils, charcoal, drawing paper etc, so I see no reason to note down all that.

So, let’s start out with Batis, just because it is first on the list and I also visit it rather often. Batis is one of the art shops on Stournari in Exarchia, and their main specialty is Russian and Japanese art supplies. I’ll list what I can remember – do keep in mind that it’s a small shop, so they might not have all products in stock at all times.

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What special supplies you can find in Batis:

Watercolors

St. Petersburg White Nights and Master Class and Kuretake Koi watercolors, both as set and individually – only pans. The newest addition is Golden QoR tubes (haven’t tried this brand yet, but they’re supposed to be super high-quality and highly pigmented). They also have Koh-I-Noor opaque watercolour sets sometimes, which are some of my personal favourites.
Excellent range of St. Petersburg paintbrushes, both natural and synthetic, and also various Japanese calligraphy brushes.

Gouache, tempera and acrylics

St Petersburg gouache (medium-size), Turner acrylic gouache (a great selection, both small tubes and large ones, some of my favourite paints) and Harding gouache (large only).

Oil paints

St. Petersburg Master Class and Charvin. (As I pretty much don’t work in oils, no additional comments about these.)

Inks 

A whole shelf, including Molotow, Kuretake and Sennelier. In addition to that Kuretake markers and refills, Zig markers and various kinds of manga pens (fude and regular).

Markers

A selection of Kuretake markers.

Printmaking

They have a range of good Essdee brayers and cutting sets for lino, grey lino and a selection of inks – some small Charvin tubes and a large tubes of Brianclegg water-based printing ink.

Papers and canvases

Now to my favourite part – paper selection! A great selection of Hahnemühle blocks (both cold press, hot press and rough), some from Lana and Fabriano (sometimes hot press). Watercolour paper from St. Petersburg (cold press and other – their textures don’t always confirm to traditional hot press or rough options). Individual sheets of  Japanese Awagami paper (different kinds) and Garzapapel (a small yet gorgeous brand of Spanish watercolor paper).
They also prepare stretched canvases upon order!

Happy browsing!

You’ll find them online on their website, Facebook and Instagram.