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.

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.