Charvin Paris

   A palette of purples? Neutrals, monochromatic, these ideas have been around forever, but in purple? I hadn't ever seen thisat variation until stumbling upon it at Charvin on the banks of the Seine. Admittedly I am no expert, and it may be a classic offering, but to me, the idea is a new one.
   If ever there was an old fashioned art shop, this is it. Wooden floors, walls hang with rows of tubes, oil paintings and heaps of paper and canvases waited to be selected and packed into beautiful canvas bags or wooden boxes. In fact, in an age of infinite option and selection, I felt that here was the one shop which could provide you with everything you would ever needed. It offered just exactly those things you wanted, often arranged into groups or sets to fit the exact need that you didn't know you had.


   One such offering were the tubes of gouache in colours that suited themselves to specific projects. Here are three I bought which are especially well suited to painting cityscapes. Note that the grey is just the right shade for the famous Parisian roofs.

The supplies are created in Nice, in the south of France. A family business, charvin opened in 1830. Originally they specialized in oils, and varnishes but as time as passed they expanded their offering of high quality materials.

One of the things that particularly drew me were the brilliant tones in the watercolour sets. I bought a small set for myself and have started to test them a bit. I will share a review of them in a future post.

Another covet worthy item where the beautiful wooden paint boxes. It would be a pure delight to walk in and let them create a custom box just for you. I don't know, maybe one day I will go back and order such a box. Let's see...

This was by far the most beautiful art shop I have ever visited. I highly recommend it if you are in Paris.

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