Visit to Dick Blick

I often order from Dick Blick's catalog. I have found that they have the most items that I like to order, in stock, so I usually try to go with them when I'm ordering online. Their prices aren't the cheapest but they are reasonable. I really like their dependability and I also like the way their web site is set up, it's pretty easy to find most of their products.

Blick recently opened a store in Seattle, so I made the way up there last week to check it out. It's a very convenient location for them (close to several art schools) on Broadway and Pine. Their web site said they had validated parking, but I couldn't find the parking garage so I ended up parking on the street and paying for it. The store itself is big and very well-stocked. I was in a hurry because I didn't have a lot of change for the parking meter, so I kind of rushed through it, but I did notice that they had a lot of different brands of oil paint, lots of different colored pencils in open stock, and airbrushes and airbrush supplies, too. They had a much larger collection of paint and pencils than Daniel Smith's store. I forgot to look at their canvas, paper and stretchers section, though. They are probably going to give Utrecht, which has a smaller store not far away, a lot of competition.

There were two people at the checkstand and it was crowded, and I'm sorry to say both cashiers seemed a little surly. Maybe they were just having a bad day. I did find out the parking garage is behind the store in the alley.

So now I have to decide whether I want to shop at their physical store or continue to order online. If I order online I have to pay for shipping ($6.95?) but if I drive to the store, it's about $2.50 or so in gas, plus about an hour and a half of my time. I will probably end up just ordering, unless I'm downtown and have some extra time to shop, which isn't very often.

Other news: I have two deadlines I am trying to meet by the end of next week, one being the NAN donation and the other is a painting that I'm working on for an upcoming show in June. I must get these two things done, so the next few days I will be working on those two projects exclusively. Then I will get right back to commissions and other sales pieces. In the meantime, here is a photo of the Dinky Duke I've been working on. He's one of my on-and-off sales pieces, but he's finally getting to a point where I can start finishing him up: