Artist's Playthings

I miss the smells, colors, textures, the light of joy that filled me.

I have grown up around two Pearl Fine Art Supplies stores and both have closed down. Yes, I can go online and buy any of the products I need, but no longer can I enter the physical store and surround myself in artist’s playthings. I always feel like a kid at a candy store, who wants to buy everything I can get my hands on. For me, part of the elation of buying at an art store is thinking about all the possibilities of what can be created with them.

I will dearly miss feeling the products: the spiky bristles of the paintbrush, the rough surface of the canvas, the malleable pieces waiting for someone to create something out of them. If I go by myself, I allow myself to leisurely browse through aisles I know I don’t need anything from.

Yes, I will miss you Pearl.