Archives of the Art Dog Blog from MacPherson's

Calligraphy and hand lettering continue to trend and open doors to a whole new demographic of customers. In honor of this, Manuscript has launched World Calligraphy Day! They will be celebrating this on social media and hosting an event at the Pen Museum in Birmingham, England.

Retailers can maximize on this event by hosting demos, classes and/or promotions during the month of August and specifically on the 16th. Make sure you shout it out on social media and make your customers aware. For retailers that do not currently have a robust calligraphy department, this is the time expand! Great ways to do this are with several easy assortments that we have put together.

Item # MUENTRYAS – Manuscript Entry Assortment contains 10 basic and best-sellers from Manuscript. To easily kickstart calligraphy in your store.

Item # MUEXPAS – Manuscript Expanded Assortment contains the 10 items in the entry assortment, plus 15 more key items to give your customers an impactful calligraphy assortment.

Item #s SP3094 and SP3095 – Speedball Intro Calligraphy Assortment and Complete Calligraphy Assortment are optimized to feature the 43/70 best-selling drawing and lettering products, they include pens, inks, nibs, books and even a poster!

Check out these assortments and many more hand lettering products on Online Express.

Two years in the making, PROCOLOUR is here! Derwent is proud to announce the latest addition to its colored pencils’ range. It’s the perfect combination of a strong point and smooth laydown, with a texture that has the covering power of wax but glides like an oil. Unique! Unique, Unique! and an instant artist favorite! With a range of 72 carefully selected colors (90% of which are lightfast scoring 3-8 on the Blue Wool Scale), your customers will enjoy creating beautiful long lasting pieces of art work!

For more info, please visit: www.derwentart.com/procolour
For more info on lightfastness, please visit: www.derwentart.com/lightfastness

Acrylic inks are so diverse in how they can be used and that may explain why they are riding such a huge growth cycle. They appeal to so many different artists, from painters to graphic artists or sequential artists to calligraphers.  It hasn’t taken long for them to find out about Amsterdam Ink and the word is out… this stuff is good!  Boasting very high pigmentation and a special formula that prevents settling, artists are surprised by the quality.  Super opaque white, dense dark black and metallic colors with real “bling” have been some of the highlights.  See Calligraphy Masters Video Review

The entire line of 46 colors is available now, featuring a handsome display and informative graphics to catch the eye. On MacPherson’s BTS promo now at an additional 15% off.

Art Benefit Auction for the Sam & Adele Golden Foundation for the Arts!

The Sam and Adele Golden Foundation will be celebrating its 20^th anniversary with an art benefit auction. There will be over 180 works of art available for sale, generously donated by artists, artists in residence, and the Golden family. Although you may not be able to join on August 12 for the LIVE and SILENT auctions, Golden invites you to participate in the ONLINE auction. Visit Paddle 8 (link below) now to preview the selection of art, and the value of the artworks. On July 31, the auction site opens for two weeks, with the addition of revealing beginning bid prices. The ONLINE auction closes August 14. All proceeds from the sales of the auctions will be used to grow the endowment, for sustainability of the program and for financial assistance to the artists in residence.

www.paddle8.com/auction/golden-foundation

The Golden Foundation is a not for profit organization which supports artists working in paint. Its residency sessions run for 4 weeks at a time, February through November. Artists spend much of their time experimenting with the latest paint materials and technology available to the industry today. Visit www.goldenfoundation.org for more information about the Golden Foundation. And if you find yourself in beautiful upstate New York, stop by and see the residency barn, a restored 100 year old barn with studios and living space.

New GOLDEN Pouring Videos from GOLDEN

Two new videos were recently added to Golden’s Video Library that your customers will be interested in. Videos are quick and easy content to share on Facebook and a great way to boost your organic reach. Please visit Golden’s YouTube or Vimeo page to check them out!

BIG PAINT POUR SETUP with GAC 800

Prepping the surface and creating mixtures with GOLDEN Fluid Acrylics and GAC 800 for the “Big Paint Pour” featured in part II.

http://www.goldenpaints.com/videos/big-paint-pour-setup-with-gac-800

BIG PAINT POUR with GAC 800

From the artist workshop at GOLDEN, a two by eight foot (61 x 244 cm) paint pour using Fluid Acrylic Colors mixed with GAC 800 as a pouring medium.

http://www.goldenpaints.com/videos/big-paint-pour–with-golden-gac-800

Go to http://www.goldenpaints.com/products/medium-gels-pastes/special-purpose-mediums or www.goldenpaints.com/mixit to learn more about GAC 800.

To learn more about GOLDEN Fluids, go to http://www.goldenpaints.com/products/colors/fluid.

B-T-S Promotional Period Reminder

Remember that extra discounts are available through MacPherson’s – please refer to the BTS Buyer’s Guide. Also note that advertising can be extended to 40% off every day for all three brands (GOLDEN Acrylics, Williamsburg Oils and QoR Watercolor) beginning on 07/24/17 and expiring on 09/29/17.

If you have any questions about any of the above information, contact your MacPherson’s Account Manager.

Derwent has been making high quality drawing materials including colored pastel pencils and graphite lead pencil sets since 1832, when they were known as the Cumberland Pencil Company. Rumor has it the story dates even further back to the 1500s, when a violent storm uprooted many trees and the shepherds discovered a black material under the soil with which they could mark their sheep. This turned out to be graphite, and a local business began making pencils with the discovered material. Today, Derwent has an unswerving reputation for innovation, inspiring artists with new products like Procolour, Inktense, Graphik Line Painters and Tinted Charcoal, alongside their classic range of Artists, Graphic and Watercolor Pencils.

The well respected industry personality Arthur Long passed away on July 5, 2017 in Dallas, TX. He was 59 years old and battled heart disease for a short period. His last position was Vice President of Fine Art Channel at Dixon Ticonderoga. He received the President’s Club Award for Outstanding Sales Accomplishment from ColArt Americas, Inc. in 2002, and was Salesperson of the Year for Canson, Inc. in 2013. Arthur is survived by his spouse, Jocelyn, his brother, Charles, and his sisters, Linda and Laura. Donations are welcome in his honor to the Wounded Warriors Project(https://www.woundedwarriorproject.org).

The Orlando Sentinel has written a piece about Fila/Dixon Ticonderoga, owner of Canson and Daler Rowney telling more of the story behind CEO Tim Gomez’s recent departure from the company. Click for the details Here

Arch Supplies in San Francisco has been featured in the Cool Cities San Francisco Guide

The award-winning animated feature Loving Vincent, Solving the Mystery of the Artist Death will see its North American premier this fall beginning with New York City on Friday, September 22^nd, then Los Angeles on Friday, September 29^th and expanding to top regional markets throughout October and November. Every one of the 65,000 frames of the film is an oil-painting hand-painted with Royal Talen’s Van Gogh Oils by 125 professional oil-painters who travelled from all across the world to the Loving Vincent studios in Poland and Greece to be a part of the production. Royal Talens North America has been working closely with the film’s distributor Good Deed Entertainment to create retailer partnerships opportunities for stores who stock the Van Gogh Oils range. Interested retailers should contact Kyle Richardson(k.richardson@royaltalens.com)

Colart has been shortlisted as finalists in the Sustainability Team of the Year category at the Ethical Corporation’s 8th Annual Responsible Business Awards. Ethical Corporation’s mission is to help businesses around the globe do the right thing by their customers and the world. Colart is in the finals because the company’s entire team has embedded sustainability top down and bottom up with their ambassador network. The winners will be revealed and celebrated at an Awards ceremony on 16th of October in London.

At Art Things in Annapolis, MD Laurie Nolan and her family have operated a community treasure for more than five decades. Recently Laurie has decided to retire from retail. She is working to identify a new owner who will lead Art Things into the lives of even more generations! If you can think of anyone who might be a good fit to purchase and operate this business, please have them contact their broker Bob Phillips (bobphillips@tworld.com).

The Manitoba Arts Council has appointed ), Janeen Junson  owner of the Artist Emporium in Winnipeg as one of its newest Council members.

With sadness we report the passing of Manny Franquinha founder of Crest Garden and Hardware in Brooklyn who passed away on July 9th at the age of 89.

Strathmore is excited to expand their initiative to offer consumers educational information as it relates to art. The video series called “Artist How-To” videos launched in May, 2015, and in these short video segments, Strathmore has paired with professional artists to offer artist tips and techniques as it relates to a specific type of art and mediums.

The newest additions to the collection of “Artist How-To” are three new videos created by artist Justin Maas. In these short 2-4 minute videos, Justin explains his tips and techniques for creating portrait artwork using toned papers. This content is great for artists just starting out with toned papers, or for those who have interest in creating portraits but need a bit of guidance on where to begin. In the first video, Justin provides an overview of why an artist may choose to use Toned paper, and how to use it. In video 2, he covers materials needed to create portraits on Toned paper and shows viewers how to set up their work space. In video 3, he demonstrates a finished piece from start to finish, while narrating his tips and techniques.

The three videos available in the Toned Paper Portraits “Artist How-To” set include:

• Video 1: Introduction

• Video 2: Materials Needed

• Video 3: Demonstration of Finished Portrait

All of these new videos are available on Strathmore’s YouTube channel at: https://www.youtube.com/user/StrathmoreArtist

You can download the videos directly from Vimeo. Simply click the “Download” button below the video.

–Video 1

–Video 2

–Video 3

To support consumers interested in learning about using Toned Mixed Media, Strathmore has also created a new Art Blog posting with some additional information about this innovative line of products. Be sure to check out all of Strathmore’s art blog postings at https://www.strathmoreartist.com/blog.html

Additionally, Strathmore offers a quarterly newsletter at https://www.strathmoreartist.com/artist-newsletter.html which features an artist and their work each publication, along with new product information, current consumer promotions, and frequently asked questions from our website. It’s a great resource for artists and retail stores to keep up to date!

Along with the Artist Tips and Tricks videos, Strathmore is proud to offer product videos, a brand video, archived years of Online workshop videos, and short videos answering artist frequently asked questions. All the videos are now available on the Retailer and Distributor Tools area of Strathmore’s website! Follow us on social media to stay in touch with all of the tools available for consumer engagement and education.

Interested in learning more? Contact your MacPherson’s sales representative for ideas of how you can drive more traffic and sales with Strathmore’s Video Series.

Winsor & Newton recently reenergized its offerings with two new surface introductions: Water Colour Paper and Canvas. In their tireless efforts for top quality products they have resourced new factories, new specifications, and higher standards to offer you excellent surfaces that complement Winsor & Newton’s established product ranges at great values for consumers.

The Winsor & Newton Water Colour Paper is a cylinder mould-made paper manufactured with the finest raw materials. The collection offers two tiers: professional water colour paper which is 100% cotton and is offered in a variety of surface textures and weights, and the classic water colour paper which is made of archival grade wood pulp. The professional tier offers both 140 lb. and 300 lb. papers in cold pressed, hot pressed, and rough textures. The classic is offered in 140 lb. cold pressed. Both tiers are internally and externally sized, exceptionally strong, and have a natural whiteness that is acid-free and doesn’t use optical brighteners.

The canvas collection comprises an entirely new range of products. Winsor & Newton is focusing on a smaller number of better-selling SKUs to introduce to the market, and there’s something for every consumer. The classic range offers 84 items in both cotton traditional and cotton traditional deep edge. The professional range has 96 items in cotton traditional, cotton traditional deep edge, and a small assortment of linen traditional. The professional range also includes the Pro-Stretcher™, an innovative stretching device custom-made for Winsor & Newton. Both ranges are hand-stretched and meticulously crafted with attention to detail.

All ranges & sizes of the Winsor & Newton Water Colour Paper & Canvas are available now through MacPherson’s, on promotion for Fall Back to School!

Large tubes of Gamblin are an outstanding value for the artist. It’s no wonder half our paint is sold in large tubes.

Artist’s Grade
In our Artist’s Grade range, artists save 39% on Series 1 colors versus buying 37ml tubes. Across all series, artists save an average of 36%.

Gamblin 1980
For serious students and working artists painting big, large tubes of 1980 are an even better deal. On Series 1 colors, artists save 46% versus buying 37ml tubes. Across the entire range, artists save an average of 38%.
Compare these savings to other brands and you’ll find Gamblin’s discounts for buying big exceed what most other brands offer.

What else should I know and what other ideas do you have?

Merchandising
Get your big tubes of Gamblin out of boxes and up into hanging tube racks. Some retailers still merchandise large tubes of Gamblin in their boxes, piled on shelves below waist level.
Increase turn by 25%+ by better merchandising this product in hanging-tube racks. Even better, we’ll ship you one for free. Just contact your MacPherson’s Account manager or Lauren (lauren@gamblincolors.com) at Gamblin and we’ll  get you taken care of. Our hanging tube racks measure 16″ wide. Each rack holds 24 colors.
Range of Offering
MacPherson’s is well stocked with the full range of Artist’s Grade and 1980 oil colors in 150ml tubes.

As mentioned above, half Gamblin’s paint is sold in large tubes. Take a look at your Gamblin sales versus other brands and consider expanding your offering of 150ml tubes.

Need a custom order to expand from where you are into a standard assortment? No problem. Contact your MacPherson’s Account Manager or Kaitlin or Lauren at Gamblin (503-235-1945) and they’ll get you squared away.

Gamblin wishes everyone a terrific summer. On behalf of all 25 in the Gamblin team, thank you for supporting an independent and American color house!

Liquitex is launching a new range of Basics 400ml squeeze bottles, Basics mediums, and Basics sets developed for students and artists who are looking for dependable quality at an economical price.

Basics 400ml provides a size option between the 250ml tube and the 946ml jar in an easy-to-use squeeze bottle. The squeeze bottles are available in 24 colors at the end of July.

Liquitex launched eight new mediums in July designed to help student artists explore their creativity. In addition to Gesso which already exists, the new products consist of core mediums: Gloss Gel, Modeling Paste, Iridescent Medium, Coarse Texture Gel, Gloss Fluid Medium, Matte Fluid Medium, Gloss Varnish, and Matte Varnish. A Mediums Trial Set priced at $14.99 for student artists who want to enter the mediums range without price being a barrier rounds out the offering.

An expanded set selection includes a Basics Best Sellers Set in a clear brick format that contains 24 – 22ml best-selling colors and has a handle for easy carrying that will be available to ship in late October.

In appreciation of your support of Basics, Liquitex is offering a Dealer Loyalty Program growth rebate (over and above any Colart rebate program) for the calendar year 2017. For further details about this program please contact your Colart sales representative.

Liquitex will also offer various point-of-sale items, such as a hand-painted blade with all 48 Basics colors in July and August to help the Basics presentation in store stand out and help educate student artists. There will also be a Fall Back to School promotion, offering 15% off the entire Basics range.

Ready to show off your creativity? In celebration of the newly launched Winsor & Newton paper and canvas range,  Colart has announced a new contest!

Take a picture of your display, share it with us and get rewarded if your display is the best of the bunch. The reward: $1,000 of Colart product at MSRP. One winner will be chosen and featured in their next newsletter. Submit your paper and canvas display photo to getintouch@colartusa.com by September 1, 2017. Colart looks forward to your submissions!