Blick Art Materials

Category:	Art Supply Store
Address:	1600 Broadway, Seattle, WA 98122, USA
Phone:	+1 206-324-0750
Site:	dickblick.com
Rating:	4.4
Working:	9AM–8PM 9AM–8PM 9AM–8PM 9AM–8PM 9AM–8PM 9AM–8PM 11AM–7PM

Location

Photos 100

Reviews 8

Jamison Taylor

Helpful staff, familiar faces. Nice to see that some of the original Utrecht employees are still holding it down at Blik. I had a newer employee be a little short with me once. Its pretty common of young and new employees at any business, theres a huge inventory of great art supples here and most the staff are very friendly and helpful and are artists themselves. They probably do have to deal with allot of book taught art students and hobbyists that expect to be waited on hand and foot in a busy art store loaded with an enormous amount of mediums which they need to be and are for the most part knowledgeable. "Its their job" is a pretty lame complaint when youre in a store packed with mediums that take years to become familiar with and know well enough to be able to offer advice to artists trying to mix mediums and determine what is compatible and be able to think outside the box a little for artists that like to repurpose materials and use them for unconventional techniques. Everyone seemed familiar with the materials they supply if not experienced with them. This store isnt very old and theyve had to staff and train allot of newbies, who often quit within the first few months like at any other business and retrain thevstaff as it turns over. In a couple more years theyll just get better IMO. I work out of DC and when I come to Seattle I need to stock up on spray paint and other materials that can only ground ship..so Im forced to acquire allot of supplies when I arrive and need to get the most out of every purchase and buy items I can use for several different purposes to stretch my dollars and not leave behind allot of supplies I cant bring back with me. Its nice having other artists helping you rather than a bunch of underpaid teenagers that are there to work register like allot of chain stores..despite being busy the people that helped me were very patient and friendly and able to discuss their own preferences and techniques. As a self taught artist I Dont always have the proper terminology and I experiment allot. Its hard to experiment on a tight budget. My 2 visits were satisfactory and I was able to acquire about everything I needed at one store. "Street art" supplies are just starting to become more mainstream and available in fine art stores and employees are generally not very knowledgeable with their application or the products themselves at any art stores so it was nice having a couple people familiar with spray paints and newer "mainstream". mediums..prices could be better.

Casey Penk

Blick has a good selection of products in a variety of mediums. Theyre generally priced decently and of decent quality. They go for the average artist market - so neither low-priced, mass-produced consumer goods nor high-end supplies for artists whove already made it. For Christmas they have a selection of art-related gift options, some of which are painfully tacky and others of which are quite cool. I picked up a DIY pinhole camera kit (still deciding if I think thats tacky or cool). Theyve also got a few racks of art and design magazines, which are well-selected and range from the avante garde, social justice angle of Adbusters to more traditional publications like Communication Arts. I also noticed a few publications that mainstream booksellers dont generally stock. -1 for inconsistent staff interactions The staff experience is hit or miss. Some (generally those working the aisles) go out of their way to help you while others seem like theyd much rather be doing something else (which applies more to the people cashiering).

Elizabeth Hamilton

Blick has a pretty good variety of art supplies on stock, and much of what they dont have can be ordered from their website. They regularly have specials on certain items--prints, frames, paints, etc.--so if youre looking for something specific and dont need it immediately, come back in a couple of weeks to see what their current special is as you can save yourself quite a bit of money if you have a bit of patience. Oddly enough, I find that their regular pencil selection is somewhat lacking. They have a good selection of colored, water color, sketching and shading, and higher end mechanical pencils, but there arent really any low-to-mid range mechanical pencils. They start at like $8-10, and if you want something less expensive, you need to go to the bookstore up the street. (Maybe a personal pet peeve, but with dozens of types of pens, youd think theyd have a few more types of pencils!)

autumnsymphonia

Great selection; one of the best art stores Ive been to in terms of size. Only negative was that I noticed I was missing 2 things on my large list of purchased items. I dont live close by enough to go back and figure stuff out, and Im not sure about the policy on discovering things like that after Ive gotten home. It was disappointing, but the items were small and under $10, so I let it go. Also, I didnt receive a free bottle of varnish they were promoting for the purchase of Gamblin products (I spent way over the amount needed for the free bottle of varnish) - another thing I realized after arriving home. All in all, it was a good experience and the cashier was nice and helpful. Prices are fair, though some things were cheaper online than in store. Ill be sticking to their online shop from now on.

A Private User

I gave the store a call to see when they opened and closed. The guy that answered the phone was extremely short and rude to me. He cut me off and then hung up on me. All I wanted to know was when they opened! Then when I called back to see when they closed he didnt pick up the phone! I called back a third time and a woman answered. She gave me the requested information but couldnt care less when I told her what happened. Poor attitudes and poor service was all I received. I would much rather put my money to an art store who actually cares and not a huge corporate super store sucking the character out of the Hill.

Mr. M M

Dont allow negative people to turn you into one of them. Very Negative energy. Terrible customer service. A very rude girl employee, who lacked basic knowledge about the store products, couldnt answer the questions I had about screen printing. So, she called the "manager" he was more incompetent than her and seemed to mirror her negative attitude. If you want negative energy with an attitude and ugly customer service than this is definitely the place. p.s the guy working in the picture frame dept. was very kind, I think he was lost. I decided to go to another store...

Pickle Loaf

This place has what we need and we have enjoyed in the past however today we had a bad experience here. We drive up from Olympia my six-year-old son had to go to the bathroom very bad by the time we got here. They gave us a lot of attitude about asking for a bathroom key. Trying to mess with a six-year-old being able to use the bathroom are not very good people skills. I am going to try to find another business that provides what we need with better customer service then what is provided here.

David Hill

One container of odorless thinner takes five days to deliver? No more Fredrix canvas panels! Horrible. No other canvas panel is comparable to Fredrix, but in order to FORCE customers to buy THEIR plastic feeling panels, they have taken the Fredrix panels out of their stores. They are terrible, but Blick could care less about what the artist needs, just as long as they sell their cruddy panels is all they worry about!