Just received a `newsflash' e-mail from Ken Bromley www.artsupplies.co.uk who are offering Winsor & Newton watercolours (and Gouache) at 30% off. This makes 14ml Series 1 £7.21p (5ml £3.85p) to series 4 £11.41p (5ml 5.74p). 37 ml are similarly discounted as are half and full pans. Watercolour mediums are on offer at 35% off. This is about 5% more than Bromley's normal discounted prices. You have to buy 6 tubes or pans to get this offer and doing so also triggers a free half pan of Quinacridone Magenta. If this free pan offer attracts you then the overall price package would work out better but there is not a lot in it.
A look at current Jacksons www.jacksonsart.co.uk and Great Art prices www.greatart.co.uk indicate they are cheaper at basic prices! Series 1 14ml from Jacksons are £6.93p and Series 4 £10.89p!!! Great Art are very close to these prices. I suggest ALWAYS compare prices before thinking you have a bargain. With the price of art materials, particularly those for watercolour, my advice is shop around and compare prices as the situation is very volatile. It's tough out there for art suppliers but even tougher for many artists. I have also checked the 5ml sizes and a similar situation appears to exist.
There are other art suppliers. I have not checked any very recently as the ones above are usually at the forefront and all offer free carriage if purchases exceed £40. Some others appear to be becoming more competitive and I'll be having a look at one or two shortly.
7 comments:
I prefer to use Bromleys if possible as their service is the best. My order always arrives the next day. But I realise now that you have pointed it out that i may pay a little more for the convenience.
Thanks Irena.If you want next day delivery fine. Both Great Art and Jacksons are excellent in my experience, delivery within 5 days. In the case of Jacksons if anything has to be returned they send a Freepost sticker. When I had a wrong delivery from I have had the occasional error but they are very quick to put things right. With Bromley,admittedly a while ago, I was expected to return the goods at my own expense. With some annoyance I kept them - full sheets Artistico paper.I was sent Hot Press instead of Not. Great Art deliver from Grmany but I've had no problems so far. Lawrence also offer an excellent service but have a fixed carriage charge.
I have not had to send anything back yet but if the supplier made a mistake then I would not be happy to pay for it and would take my custom elsewhere. Pity you are not closer to me Peter as Fabriano HP is one of my favourite papers. It just shows how important customer service is in terms o f keeping customers.
Hi Irena. Sorry about the grammatical errors in my previous reply to you. I must have been distracted somehow.(mind you I have had a spam post today, anonymous as usual, saying while `good' my blog is full of spelling errors. I do correct old posts where I find previously overlooked mistakes. I am careless at times.
This was a single instance with Bromley and I have had the occasional items since from them, but in general both Jacksons and Great Art have a much larger range of products, which is one reason why I buy from them, as I purchase for the AVA group.
Actually I still have the Fabriano Hot press and am thinking of using it as a try out for Portraits.
hi Peter,
Thank you very much for the alerts.
I absolutely agree with you that watercolour painting art materials' prices are very volatile lately to say the least.
At the moment I do just like you do, as I also go through all the websites to see which one is the cheapest in the art materials that I want to buy.
Besides the websites you mentioned in this and the next posting I also like Heaton Cooper and TN Lawrence. This last one being a great supplier of Kremer pigments which I am starting to use for my watercolour earth colours which become quite a bit cheaper this way. I am still a bit 'wimpy' to prepare paints from colour pigments with health warnings though. LOL
By the way have you ever come across the book "Daring Color" by Anne Abgott in your book browsing?
Kind regards,
Rui
Hi Peter,
In my previous posting I mentioned TN Lawrence which you already have mentioned, the company I buy my pigments from is AP Fitzpatrick which are online and also have a lovely pigments shop in the East side of London.
Kind regards,
Rui
Thanks Rui. I have some pots of pigment. Some came from Clearwater caves in the Forest of Dean not too far from where I live, the other lot I obtained when in Provence. There were two shops there, one in particular, selling nothing else. I did buy a Sennelier mixture intended for mixing with pigment but to be frank I can't be bothered to go to the trouble. This may change.
I know the companies you mention but both charge carriage regardless and this makes them less competitive on price. I've also heard of Fitzpatrick. Turnham is another.
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