Ny Central Art Supply

I picked up very nice gouache and paper on my most recent visit and everything was cheaper than at Blick.

best place to buy decorative paper in the whole, wide, world! friendly & knowledgeable staff too. one of my favorite places in the city.

This place is beyond awful. They have a good selection, but it is impossible to shop here. Even if you know exactly what you need, the people behind the counter will sneer at you and judge you for your selection.
I needed heavy, hot-​press paper for screenprinting. I knew exactly what brand and size I needed, and I said so matter-​of-​factly. The Jerry-​Garcia wanna-​be behind the counter literally lifted his nose, rolled his eyes, turned away, AND said «…screenprinting???» I replied with «What? Is there something else that you would recommend?» and instead of, gee, I don’t know, offering advice? He replied with «Well, if that’s what you wanna do…»
I left second-​guessing my choice even though I was so positive it was the right one.
Not to mention, the actual layout of this place is MISERABLE. It is impossible to shop their «catalog» of paper (which is actually just decade-​old paper covered in fingerprints on poster hangers on one side of a very cramped room). If there are more than two people in that room trying to look at the samples, you are not going to have a good time. There were six people trying to shop while I was there and they couldn’t even accomodate that much.

A very specific flavor is found here. I wanted calf skin parchment, and they sell it in their very terrific paper selection department. The people behind the counter were definitely on the gruff side, and one went on about how she missed old New York where you could find mob dumped bodies near [someplace] in Brooklyn. When she was a kid, people were always finding hands and stuff. New York has gone SOFT in her opinion. Downstairs, the people behind the counter looked at me like I was disgusting, and then after one question about egg tempera and water soluble graphite, they were gruff, informative and a little bit funny. This is the historic store where painters have been coming forever, with teeny aisles and choc full of random, beautiful things guarded by and shopped by pissed introvert artists with no privacy, which is probably like a New York metaphor. So. 4 stars for the people watching, including the clientele, and for an aisle that is, for real, about 2 feet wide. If you’re sick of supportive hippies and want a world where there are stupid questions and no easily organized spaces arranged by a marketing department, this is the flavor you want.

If you have to go an hour out of your way to avoid this place, do it! The people that work here are as discourteous as one can be. Is working at an art supply store the most stressful job in the city? Hardly. So what’s with the attitude…