Fine Art Supplies

Impressions carries an extensive range of artist supplies. From play paints for junior artists to 'professional' artist quality acrylics, oils, watercolours, designers gouache, drawing media including inks, charcoal, pastels and pencils to canvas, papers, easels, brushes, palettes, additives, mediums and varnishes – we cater for most artists' needs.

Impressions carries these reputable brands: -

Old Holland Oils

Winsor & Newton: Artist & Cotman Watercolours, Artist Oils, Artisan Watersoluble Oils, Griffin Alkyds, and Brushes

Daler Rowney: Artist and Georgian Watercolours, Oils and Brushes.
Chroma: Atelier and A2 Acrylics
Derivan Matisse: Derivan Artist & Matisse Professional Artist Acrylics, Gesso, Mediums and Varnishes
Sennelier: Extra Soft L'écu Pastels and Oil Pastels
Art Spectrum: Mediums, Pastel Paper and Board, Pastel Primer, Pastel Sets, Oil Prime and Brushes
Saunders Waterford: Watercolour Paper
Canson & Fabriano: Watercolour and Pastel Papers
Arches: Watercolour Papers
Faber Castell & Derwent: Drawing Media and Accessories
Derwent: Drawing Media

Conté à Paris: Sketching Crayons

Schmincke

Extra Soft Pastels

Rembrandt Soft Pastels

Unison Colour Soft Pastels

Impressions are proud to have been appointed the sole distributor for these lovely pastels in New Zealand. We are happy to supply artists throughout New Zealand. Equally we are happy to supply fine art supplies retailers who can then supply their own clientele.

Golden Acrylics

We are delighted to stock a wide range of Golden Heavy Body and Fluid Acrylics together with the most popular grounds, mediums and varnishes.

Artist Supports

Impressions carries a range of canvas, stretcher bars and heavy-duty stretching pliers: -

DAS and Fredrix Canvas Panels
DAS Professional, Exhibition and Studio Stretched Canvas
Fredrix Watercolour Canvas - loose primed canvas, stretched and in pad
Fredrix loose primed and unprimed canvas on roll and in pad
Art Spectrum Lightweight and Heavy Duty Inter-locking Stretcher bars
Museum Stretched Canvas hand-stretched in New Zealand
Watercolour sheets by Arches, Saunders Waterford, Fabriano and Canson
Watercolour Pads and Blocks including Arches, Art Spectrum, Fabriano, Daler Rowney Langton and Bockingford.
Pastel Papers - Canson Mi-Teintes in pad and sheet, Art Spectrum Colourfix sanded and Suede paper sheets and NAS Black Series A3 Pads
Sketch pads and visual diaries in white and black from A6 to A2 from 110 gsm
Art Spectrum Draw and Wash papers in sheet and pads
Mixed Media paper by Canson in packs and sheets, varying sizes.
Velin Arches printmaking paper - 100% rag

Easels

Impressions stocks a standard range of easels comprised of tabletop, box, French, portable and studio easels.

Blockprint supplies

We carry Flint water-based and oil inks for block printing. Accessories include lino blocks, both hard and soft brayer rollers, plus lino and wood-cutting tool sets.

Metallic Leaf

We stock gold, silver and copper leaf and size. Gold and silver leaf are also available in imitation leaf.

Unison Soft Pastels

Impressions is delighted to announce that we have been appointed as the Distributor for Unison Soft Pastels in New Zealand. Our opening range will shortly be despatched from the UK, and we expect to introduce these to our stock ranges early in August.

Unison Colour began as a business in the early 1980s, when artist John Hersey found that mass-produced, factory made pastels simply did not offer the qualities he was looking for, and so he decided to make his own. Despite manufacturing over half a million individual sticks a year, Unison Colour's pastels retain all the handmade qualities of the originals. The 378 shades continue to be mixed to John's meticulous recipes and are based on the traditional pigments such as cadmiums, cobalts, and natural and synthetic earths. There is a colour guide [900KB PDF] available for you to download.

The difference in the manufacturing process, hand rolling rather than extrusion, gives Unison Colour Pastels a unique texture, delivering a consistency of response across the colour spectrum that is unmatched.

The colour relationships accommodate the brilliance and intensity of the sun, the dissolving of this intensity by the blueness of space and the mysterious darkness of earth. More than anything else, they take account of the movement or circulation of these elements and their changing effects on one another.

Merely adding black or white in a series of stepped tones, was never an option. The result is an intensity and fluency that artists love.

Pigment properties vary enormously, some needing a little binder, some none at all. The pigments are mixed to a thick consistency and spooned out in equal proportions onto sheets of absorbent paper until they are dry enough to handle. This drying time varies from pigment to pigment and can take from a few minutes up to 24 hours. Each pastel is then rolled and cut to length.

'The purpose is to realise the light. The heart of colour is light. The dance of light is colour. Like Blake's 'Whirlwind of Lovers' the colours are forever coming from, or moving towards some embrace and, for me, it is this movement that is so appealing and that embrace that is so astonishing'. John Hersey

Speciality Orders

Most months Impressions features a product or range of products, offering a generous extra discount for the duration of the month for Impressions Art Club Members. So it pays to keep in touch with what is happening and to join the Impressions Art Club.