Grumbacher Cherry Wood Paint Sets (Available in Academy Acrylic, Academy Oil and Max Water Soluble Oil) at 50/15% (57.5%) Grumbacher Messenger Bag Gift Sets – These unique, new sets are available in Academy Acrylic or Academy Oil. The sets come with 3 brushes, 2 palette knives, 6 tubes of paint and a 16”X13” Messenger Bag. The set is valued at $70. The “special retail” of $49.95 provides a tremendous value to retailers and consumers. Grumbacher Selected Color Sets at 50/15% Grumbacher Watercolor Pan Sets at 50/10% Grumbacher Packaged Brush Sets at 70/10% Grumbacher “New” Palette Knives – Grumbacher’s new plastic Palette and Painting Knives are like nothing offered in our…

Chroma invites you to check out international artist Mitch Waite: In this two-part video, Mitch uses Atelier Interactive Professional Artists’ Acrylic to demonstrate how to paint from a photograph using drawing techniques with emphasis on perspective skills and tonal values.  He teaches the viewer how to divide the canvas into sections, how to place objects using angles and how to create depth using highlights and shadows.  Look for more Atelier Interactive videos from Mitch over the next few weeks!

ColArt’s 2009 Holiday Set offering has something to fit every gift budget! ColArt is featuring gift sets this holiday season to fit every budget, from an $8.49 msrp Reeves Mini Paint By Number Set to Derwent’s Elegant Inktense Woodbox Pencil Set at $134.95 msrp, and the majority of the sets retail for under $50. Many retailers surveyed by ColArt last year reported that their greatest holiday sales came from sets offered below $30, and MacPherson’s 2009 Holiday Buyer’s Guide features many ColArt Gift items that fit this profile based on dealer net! Choose from: Winsor & Newton Art Sets (Winton, Cotman, Artisan, Galeria, Sketching) Liquitex BASICS Studio Wood Box Set…

The must-have gift item of the holiday season! Be sure to capitalize on the wildly popular artist trading card phenomenon by placing your Strathmore Artist Trading Card Set order for the holiday season.  The set includes all the paper essentials in an archival storage box, making it the perfect gift for artists.  The archival box can be used to carry ATCs to swaps, organize collections or store Strathmore paper surfaces.  The set includes an assortment of ATC Surfaces:  Assorted Pack with 12 sheets, Watercolor Pack with 10 sheets and Vellum Bristol Pack with 20 sheets. Offer your customers the gift that keeps on giving… as artists create their own original…

New 3-Tube Box In an effort to reduce the size of its environmental footprint, Golden will be making a change in the 3-tube box that is used for shipping 2 oz. tubes. The current corrugated box will be replaced by a 100% recycled post consumer fiber box. The new box folds flat for disposal and, with less packaging overall, there is less waste. In addition, the new box will be easier to insert the tube for shipping, as well as remove the tubes at retail for placement in the rack, saving labor costs on both ends. Shipping tests indicate that the new box will perform equally well to the performance…

Chroma, Inc. is sponsoring an art contest for students and you can get involved to help drive Chroma-made oil & acrylic sales!  This contest is offering $12,000 in cash and prize awards. Our sales team will be receiving a packets of flyers to distribute to you retailers who stock Atelier Interactive, A>2 and/or Archival Oils. After your reviewing the program, don’t hesitate to contact Jennifer VonStein at jvonstein@chromaonline.com if you have any additional questions. How Students Can Enter: The Chroma Student Art Competition is open to students enrolled in a college level art course with a duration of at least one year. Students must be a resident of either the…

✺     MacPherson’s will have the new Prismacolor Manga sets in late September.  We have a great promotional price on these sets as well as a FREE pack of Strathmore 300 Series Sequential Paper for each new Prismacolor Manga Set you purchase. The Holiday consumer flyer from Creative Catalog Concepts details the free paper offer for your customer as does MacPherson’s 2009 Holiday Buyer’s Guide. Please contact your MacPherson’s rep for the details. ✺    The Prismacolor Holiday Consumer Rebate details are finalized below: Purchases made between November 15th and January 15th 2010. Prismacolor Purchased at Dealer Retail Amount of Rebate $50.00 $10.00 $100.00 $20.00 $200.00 $40.00 $300.00 $70.00 ✺     The…

Walter Foster has announced a special Collector’s Edition Assortment complete with a new rack that now holds 14 of the 9” x 12” titles. Not only is Walter Foster running a great introductory promotion on this limited time assortment, but they are also giving away free product to help retailers promote and offering free freight! In addition to the original assortment contents you will receive 4 free titles – a $78.90 value! Consumers love BOGO’s (Buy one, get one free) so why not use the free goods to fund your own BOGO offer? The retail for this Assortment (including free goods) is $498.60 and you can get it, drop ship,…

Want to generate customer interest and sales in some new and innovative products?  Then check out these unique product offerings from Elmer’s.  All items are featured in MacPherson’s Holiday Buyer’s Guide. ☆  Mythbusters Science Kits These new activity kits contain all the essential supplies needed to perform scientific experiments that will help prove or disprove many popular myths relating to flight, water and air pressure. Just as on the popular TV show, trial and error will be used to test various theories;  some will work and some will be busted. Designed for ages 9 and up, the Mythbusters sets feature a common price point and are perfect for holiday end…

Magnetic Manikin from Art Alternatives. Hidden magnets in the hands and feet make this accurately-proportioned magnetic manikin flexible enough to mimic many human positions, to do handstands, or even to ”climb” metal surfaces. Made of unvarnished hardwood, the manikin is 8″ tall and it comes with a magnetic ball accessory and stand that can attach to either its hands or feet. Only $9.99 MSRP and on promo for an incredible $3.32 net!!! (Ask for “SI” pricing.)

Chroma Inc. is happy to introduce its new channel on YouTube, Chroma0001.  On this channel, you can find all of Chroma’s informative videos on Atelier Interactive and our fine art products. In the newest video series, Chroma Teaching Artist and Copley Master Mikel Wintemantel takes you step by step as he creates a luminous landscape filled with light. Discover Mikel’s secrets of scumbling and layering color, isolating layers and his bold color palette here:

Looking to spruce up your store’s kids art activities area? We just added a bunch of new items, but here is one that really caught our eye. It’s a new activity toy from Crayola that lets kids express their creativity by decorating both the outer dome and the inner stand. It’s an open-ended drawing opportunity – it can be re-worked over and over, because it’s so easy to wipe off your creation and start over with the six glow markers. To add to the “wow factor”, the dome spins and lights up, making it a beautiful night decoration.  There are several settings for the type of light show you can display.…

We are back in stock on the Art Alternatives Young Artist Easel in our 3 distribution centers! The easels are being refurbished by replacing the old chalkboard with a new, compliant, black chalkboard. Our inventory will be completely converted by the middle of next week. If you’d like to place an order for this item, it is AA13301S, UPC 082435133027. If you are holding the previous version of the easel in quarantine, please click the link below to fill out a very short form. We cannot proceed with our chalkboard replacement plan since it has not been approved by the CPSC, but we can replace your inventory with refurbished easels…

At MacPherson’s we are constantly on the lookout for features to add that put you, the independent art material retailers, in control. You’ll find our latest idea in the Totals section on the last page of any invoice from us. It gives you the total retail value of the order, and the calculated discount from MSRP. What does it all mean? Now you can monitor your gross margin at a glance and make adjustments as needed.

Here is an article from a recent Small Business Trends blog by Kare Anderson that seems particularly timely given the huge challenges facing all sizes and shapes of brick and mortar retailers. How often have you entered a store. . . * And observed two clerks continue to chat instead of turning to smile at you? * To find that the order you called in the day before is not at the counter, ready for your quick pick-up and payment, because the clerk said she “got busy with other customers?” * And asked the clerk a question about a product and get an “I don’t know” response, with no offer…