NEW! Williamsburg Marketing Materials! Check out the new marketing materials from GOLDEN products. The new Williamsburg POP Blade (M625152) features four large hand-painted squares of color on birch plywood. This gives artists the ability to see and feel the actual paint as well as the grind variations in pigment particle size that are the hallmark of the Williamsburg brand. Painting can be as much a tactile experience as visual one, a connection that is fundamental to the Williamsburg paintmaking philosophy. The other side of the blade highlights the range of colors in the Williamsburg line with 77 hand-painted colors from the Part A display rack, grouped by their pigment grind from Very Fine to Coarse. Packaged with…

Strathmore is excited to once again offer their free Online Workshop Series, which starts March 2, 2015! Take advantage of this consumer workshop series and increase your store’s traffic and sales. Promote the start of the workshops in your store, on your website, on social media, and drive sales as students purchase from the class supply list (there are over 30,000 students registered already). Check out Strathmore Online Workshops for more information about the 2015 Workshop Series. Here are three ideas for retailers to take advantage of the program: 1. Create Workshop Supply End-Cap – Download this 2.  Follow Strathmore Artist Papers on Facebook – and share the posts with your fans. This is a really easy thing to do.  Strathmore shares on-going information and reminders about the Workshops on Facebook.  Ask your fans…

NAMTA Needs Your Help Please complete this anonymous 20-question survey now and contribute your experiences and information to the ONLY study of the U.S. and Canadian art materials market, sponsored every three years by NAMTA: the NAMTA Artists and Art Materials Study. All retailers who complete the survey will get the survey results report. Take the Namta Retailer Survey Here! Get Great Information about Art Materials Retailing in 2015 Your participation is crucial. We need to hear from a wide range of many art materials retailers to produce reliable survey results. You will receive results in early May 2015 that include the following national information: • What should retailers post on Facebook? • What art materials…

Gerald(Jerry) Goldstein, the founder of Jerry’s Artarama passed away on February 10th at 85. He was a depression baby born days after the stock market crash in 1929. Always a hard worker and a passionate Sunday painter he hatched the idea of selling art supplies at a discount while working at a toy store in in 1960. In 1968 he opened his own art supply store. Jerry combined his lifelong dedication for customer care and affordable creative supplies to launch the beginning of an industry retail icon. His sons Ira and David carry on this philosophy along with his grandchildren Michael, Heather and Dara. Farewell Jerry!  In his honor, Jerry’s is setting up The Jerry Goldstein Foundation which will seek…

Pebeo’s Chairman Eric Chaveau announced recently that Jacques Joly has joined the company to become the group General Manager. Previously Jacques was the General manager of Hamelin’s Canson Division. See POW! WOW! Hawaii through the eyes of Martha Cooper an American photojournalist who is best known for her work documenting the New York graffiti art scene from 1970 through 1980.  Fast forward to 2014 and take a look at the POW! WOW! Hawaii street art festival through the lenses of this iconic photographer as she documents murals in progress and chats with the participating artists. NAMTA’s tri-annual Artist Survey has just been released and the results are available to download on…

A letter from Kyle Richardson, North American Business Manager – Royal Talens/Bruynzeel Canson Inc.: Dear Art Material Retailers I am happy to announce that we have been successful in creating a Minimum Advertised Pricing (MAP) policy on Rembrandt Oils, Pastels and Watercolors, that will be implemented effective Jan 1, 2015. This will help keep the advertised pricing of this premier range in line with the brand positioning as it is intended, and it will allow you as retailers to sell the product at a healthier margin, both every day and on seasonal promotions. Below are the seasonal periods and the corresponding MAP guidelines for appropriate discounts. We will be supporting these with discounts…

Ed Ogorzaly, the President of Blick’s Retail, is relinquishing his position after serving the past 18 years in various leadership roles to become an advisor to the Board of Directors and CEO Bob Buchsbaum. Ed led the acquisition and integration of five businesses, including the most dominant competitors, the Art Store and Utrecht, positioning Blick as the number one direct art supplier in the nation. Wishing you all the best, Ed as you pursue your next senior leadership challenge. At Aaron Brothers, Alvaro Novoa has been promoted to Category Manager, Art Supplies reporting to Amy Djerff.  Novoa moves over from Aaron Brothers parent company Michaels which he joined in 2011 as a…

Pygmalion’s Art Supplies in Bloomington, IN celebrates the opening of their new mural entitled “Red Studio”, designed and painted by Bloomington artist, Jim Sampson. Store owner John Wilson notes that this mural project is the store’s most recent contribution to the local arts community, which they have long supported since their establishment in 1972. Concetta Antico, the owner of Salon of Art in San Diego, CA,  has a very rare gift called Tetrachromacy or “Rainbow Vision”.  She can see 100 times more colors than the average person because of this genetic condition. She has more receptors in in her eyes to absorb color, enabling her to see more colors. The average person…

Fine Arts Weekend is Westminster, CA’s Art Supply Warehouse’s signature annual customer appreciation event held at the end of October. As the photo shows, Apple and their iPhone launches have nothing on ASW. Hundreds of deal, promo and goodie bag hungry creative folks lined up in the middle of the night to be first in line. Congratulations to Mark Ball and team for a truly amazing “show us how it’s done” event! Tom Konieczko, the well respected purchasing manager at Artist & Craftsman in Portland Maine has moved on to pursue other opportunities.  Pacon Corporation, parent company of Strathmore recently announced that it has completed the acquisition of the assets of Roselle Paper…

A farewell message from Stu Beattie, MacPherson’s Chairman of the Board: I’ll be retiring from MacPherson’s at the end of October with only great memories of our company and industry – 26 years that have rushed by, seemingly in an instant. What I shall miss most is those with whom I have worked both at MacPherson’s and in the customer and vendor art materials community. I’m pleased to include in that group our competitors who always have competed with MacPherson’s fiercely but fairly. I will continue to serve on the MacPherson’s Board of Directors and am excited to play an ongoing role in the Company’s success. Louise and I are looking forward to seeing more of the world and to…

Montana Artist Collective Annual Meeting in San Francisco In August the Montana Artist Collective made their yearly gathering in San Francisco to discuss projects for the rest of the year. After a day of meeting and brainstorming project ideas, the Collective hit the city to paint. Wane, Steel, Risk, Dmote, Atom and Sever spent the following day painting a wall in San Francisco’s Mission District. A lot of fun and laughs were had. Keep an eye out for more actions made by the Montana Artist Collective in the near future. httpv://youtu.be/qdq9AFU3vTs Check out more images of the trip here: M.A.C. Meeting Summer 2014

I would like to share a letter that I sent recently to all of our MacPherson’s Employee Owners: Dear MacPherson’s Employee Owner, Since the inception of the ESOP in 2010 Stu and I envisioned a time when you, the heart and soul of our company, could carry on successfully without us. Over the past several years the board of directors and I have had extensive discussions aimed at creating a succession plan and we have decided that now’s the time to take a careful step forward.   The search for my replacement will be the first priority. A team consisting of our VP Natasha Nicholson-Bjerre and our two outside Directors,…

General Pencil was recently featured on “This Built America” – a web series from AOL. The title of the piece is One Daughter Who Wouldn’t Give Up on the Family Business. The story is a touching inside look at the dynamics of a family business determined to carry on a multi-generational tradition. This Built America is a project devoted to the people and companies re-imagining and rebuilding American manufacturing. Every week, they feature the stories, the struggles and the successes of US companies as they forge a new path in this country’s future. Looking for fun and inspirational content for your social media outreach? Please feel free to share and remind customers that yes, General…

This unique line of high-end charcoal is perfect for the artist and professional. In case you are new to this amazing line, MacPherson’s is offering a small countertop assortment, as well as open stock. If you are looking for it on MacPherson’s Online Express(OEX), the Vendor Code is NC. Launch kits are already in the hands of our Account Managers, and inventory is available in both MacPherson’s distribution centers. Look for e-blasts of both the assortment and open stock coming soon. We will be offering 46% off everyday with no case minimums and free freight with a qualifying MacPherson’s order. That’s right, you can now buy one box of charcoal at…

With sadness we report that Alex Dow, son of Nancy and Don Dow of Artograph, passed away Tuesday, July 15. MacPherson’s has an opening for a Customer Service Representative in our Emeryville, CA corporate headquarters. See the full job posting here: Customer Service Representative – Art Materials Denise Mbugua has joined Sam Flax in Atlanta as their new Buyer/Inventory Control & Planning. Denise had previously worked at AI Freidman, in NY. AI Friedman’s new buyer is Lauren Haimelen.  She will be taking over Cliff Zelenko’s duties; Cliff is retiring at the end of the month. Rick Berman left Tombow recently and has joined Crescent as Sales Manager Art Materials reporting to Linda Hart VP of…

Princeton Brush is excited to announce the introduction (and availability too!!) of Princeton Series 7050 Kolinsky Sable Brushes. Series 7050 are genuine Kolinsky Sable brushes made with only the finest quality of hair. The line consists of Watercolor rounds from size 3/0 through size 12. With extraordinary effort and care, each brush is handcrafted by an experienced German brush maker. The hairs are bound together with a seamless nickel ferrel that connects to a black lacquer handle, giving the brush a sleek and professional look. The brushes provide amazing control and color holding capacity with every stroke. Keep an eye out for Princeton Kolinsky Sable from MacPherson’s – for the time being, the demand…

MacPherson’s Dealer Workshop A Great Success! Thank you to MacPherson’s personnel for hosting an incredible workshop! Your planning and preparation led to a very organized, valuable event. The hands-on demonstrations and round-robin presentations were interesting and informative for all. We were pleased to see so many retailers in attendance. Your continued support and enthusiasm for all GOLDEN products is appreciated tremendously! MacPherson’s Buyer’s Guide Be sure to take a look at the new MacPherson Back-to-School Buyer’s Guide, which is currently effective and available. It features larger sizes in Fluids and a number of other exciting offerings from GOLDEN, reinforcing all three brands – GOLDEN Acrylics, Williamsburg Oils and QoR® Watercolor! Latest News About QoR® Watercolor! QoR Video & Article in The Artist’s Magazine QoR…

Increase activity at your retail store by sharing social media content and information about the 2014 Strathmore Card Art Submission Contest! Strathmore is calling all card artists to submit their fresh fall and winter themed greeting card art. Artists who submit their work will have a chance to win cash and Strathmore card products! Artwork may be featured on Strathmore promotional materials, or on social media sites. We will be selecting three featured artists from our fall/winter card artwork submissions to receive cash and prizes. Artists selected will be credited by name wherever artwork is featured (social media sites or Strathmore promotional materials). 1st Place – Awarded $500, plus $200 retail value of Strathmore® card products (chosen by Strathmore Artist Papers). 2nd Place – Awarded $250,…