Artists and art lovers, this one’s for you! This shop in the main Panjim market, stores all kinds of art supplies — from oils to acrylics, colour pencils, pens and markers, to art paper, brushes, canvases — Art Shoppe is that one store from where you’ll never come back empty handed (or empty hearted).
While Goa is home to many arts and artists, finding the right art supplies here can be quite the pain. Despite many big and popular markets, there’s a very limited number of art stores that sell supplies of international quality. Art Shoppe — a store that goes by the tagline ‘There’s a little art in every heart’ is that one shop in Panjim, that caters to all the needs of the art fraternity.
Run by Gerson De Rego, a 70-year-old man of Goan-Portuguese descent, walking into the store is quite the revelation. What looks like a modest shop opens up into row after row of colourful art supplies of premium quality. Gerson himself, is an artist — a JJ School of Arts alumnus, and an ex-art director and takes pride in stating that if his shop does not have it, it means the company does not have it either.
At this store, you’ll find everything art — from pencils, brushes, palette knives, to mediums, to medium brushes, to canvas, paper for different mediums, acrylics, oils, pastels, wooden pencils, to imported and Indian calligraphy nibs to inks and spray paints. He even sells art prints for his own artworks (though he barely gets to paint much these days) and that of other upcoming local artists and also reserves his advice on mediums, surfaces and brushes, for those that bother to ask. In short, being at Art Shoppe, is like being transported to a candy land of art supplies.
