Arlene’s Artist Materials

Great selection, very knowledgeable staff. I’ve been to many art stores and arlenes is one of my favorites. They even have occasional art classes for free!

Rude, insulting staff. Went there to get something framed, was 15 minutes until it was closing time. Dude behind counter smarmily dismissed me from store. Even mumbled «asshole» as I walked out. And I was with my daughter. Classy.
Just don’t go. There are other frame shops popping up in the area, thankfully.

I love art supply stores, ahhh even the smell is great! They have a great stock range and pretty decent rates for a specialized store. You can actually ask the staff for advice, and with tons of supplies to choose from it really helps for someone to say, oh try this paintbrush/​use this tool. It’s a 5 from me!

There’s a very good reason they win Metroland’s «Best of Every Year» — because no one can compete with the quality, quantity and service from this store which carries every kind of art supply imaginable and a lot of fun, quirky gift and novelty items.

Local Artists supporting local art!
This shop has almost everything you need, and its reasonably priced.
Staff was helpful and wrapped all of my supplies neatly and carefully.
Definitely recommended.

I’ve recently transitioned from computer-​based/​digital art to trying my hand at traditional art. Arlene’s was recommended to me by an artist I know.
Having done my fair share of computer-​based 3D modeling and sculpting, I decided I was going to give real sculpting a shot, so I went here to pick up some clay, wire mesh and tools from Arlene’s in order to get started with the inevitable shit-​show of a sculpting effort to follow. Despite the fact that I generally had no idea what the hell I was talking about, the employee I dealt with here was awesome. She patiently answered my stupid questions, made recommendations, and sent me on my way.
Arlene’s has a ton of stuff, and is definitely worth checking out. Depending on how much of a disaster my project ends up, if I’m not completely demotivated I will definitely be back to Arlene’s to buy more supplies!

Absolutely love the art supply side… everyone is friendly and extremely helpful. My experience in the Custom Framing department, however, was awful. Came in with five pieces of art to frame. Paul was belligerent and completely unwilling to even discuss creative matting or using a vintage frame I had brought in. He was so busy shaking his head «no» in fact, that he didn’t even listen to what I was asking for. I picked my stuff up and said I was leaving, to which I got a half-​assed «I’m sorry». He was a jerk… plain and simple. Sorry to interrupt your smoke break, dude.
Drove right over to one of Arlene’s competitors (around the corner) and got everything I was looking for. Learned from the guys there that Paul’s attitude was pretty well known.
Arlene’s lost a $ 1,000.00 framing order that day and any hope of regaining me as a customer. I’ve worked in retail, and as a custom framer in the past and… news flash… a bad attitude and «no» doesn’t bring in revenue.
There are plenty of resources for this kind of work, so my question to Arlene’s management is: how is that considered acceptable to your bottom line?

The staff at Arlene’s was always very knowledgeable and helpful, and the store is the best resource for artists and craftspeople in Albany.
However, their framing department uses acid-​bearing mat board. This is inexcusable, especially since their staff and customers are the very people who should care most about using archival quality materials. I assumed I could trust them to use acid-​free mat board, but I was wrong.

Well supplied, considering the size of the building. Framing supplies, large mats and paper sold by the sheet, paints, dyes, markers. Well, everything an art store ought to have. I am relieved to have a «real» art store near me!

I don’t like getting kids plastic junk for birthday presents. Even well made things are still things that take up space in somebody’s house.
Regardless if the present is for a child or for an adult, I prefer to give consumables. Since you can’t really give a kid a nice bottle of wine, and a fancy bottle of juice just doesn’t quite get the excitement it deserves, that leave art supplies.
For that I go to Arlene’s.
And they’ve got the goods. They’ve got a helpful staff. There are even a bunch of prepackaged kids art projects over on the far right hand side of the store.
But my regular purchases here are giant pads of newsprint. Each kid has one, and when they fill it up, we go and get a new one. They can sit on the floor, or be propped up on an easel. It works will with crayons, markers, pens or pencils. It can be used for art, or math, or composing song lyrics. And it is so big, that a well decorated sheet makes lovely personalized wrapping paper for birthday gifts.
Who needs TV when you have a giant pad.

I don’t draw but I love looking at the pens and markers here. And I don’t need another magnet for the fridge but I love the selection they have here.
I recently went here with my mom to get some things framed (one being a Christmas present for my dad that was an irregular size). The guy who helped us was SO friendly and so nice. We pretty much had nothing in mind for what we wanted and he had tons of suggestions for us. We listened, nodded our heads and ended up with some really nice frames. The present for my dad actually needed a custom matte which looks great even with the pre-​made frame we put the whole thing in. There’s a big selection of items here and a friendly and knowledgeable staff.
Also a great place if you’re looking for some cute little presents. (Stocking stuffers, perhaps?)

It’s the papers. I’m a sucker for the papers here. The hand-​dyed ones from Nepal, the Italian marbleds and the rest. The selection of letter-​sized papers is quite decent and the prices really aren’t too bad.
If you’re looking for goofy captions to slap into a scrapbook, this isn’t really the place. It’s more the spot for things like watercolors, pastels and charcoals, as well as a huge selection of various types of canvas and board. There’s also a decent amount of book-​binding supplies which often induces me to outright drooling… the prices of those supplies seem to be high almost everywhere.
Nice friendly staff, and cool postcards and greeting cards help make this a place I frequent. They also have some cool little gifty items too.