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.

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

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.

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.