Professional art materials supplies is the essence of a creative process. If you are an artist and looking for quality art materials in Riga, you won’t be disappointed if you visit a proper art materials shop.
One of the most popular shops among artists is Vilhelms, located right in front of Art Academy of Latvia, on the Valdemara street and Kalpaka boulevard corner, across the street.
Art materials selection offered here ranges from pastels, oil paint, watercolours, acryl paint for painters, canvases and various kinds of paper, as well as sculpturing materials to brushes and other instruments. The prices are quite high, but they also offer a discount for a bulk purchases. This shop selling art materials in Riga is quite old and well knowm among locals. In order to find it look for a Vilhelms sign on the house.
Another shop, where it is possible to buy quite a lot of different art materials, is Radošo darbu galerija. It has a flavour of arts&crafts matetials shop, but still there a quality selection of paint and brushes as well. When choosing between shops offerings art materials in Riga, a location might be a concern. The latter is not located in a very centre of Riga and would feet those living around Tallinas street. It also offers discount cards. For these ask the seller at the counter.
If you are not a professional artist selling own pieces of art and are just a beginner, not aiming to spend on professional art matetials in Riga, and maybe you do not live in the very centre, rather in one of Riga districts, you can visit a bookstore in any shopping centre nearby. Most of these have several bookstore chains’ departments inside, like Jānis Roze or Valters un Rapa. These offer quite a big range of watercolor paint, paper, ink pens, pencils etc. at reasonable prices. Some shopping centres collaborate with their tenants and offer internal discount cards, which are also valid in the bookstores. The most popular shopping centres, where it could be possible to but art materials in Riga, are Domina, Riga Plaza, Galleria Riga, Galerija Centrs, Mols, Alfa. For smaller shopping centres the best way would be to check if there is a bookstore.
There are several specialised shops, who supply various materials for artists. Here is a short list of the stores.
– Vilhelms, Radošo darbu galerija for professional materials.
– Baltijas papīrs for specialised paper supplies.
– Book stores Jānis Roze and Valters un Rapa, who besides books also offer paper and paint mainly to non professional artists and children for school lessons’ purposes.