Is it called 大八 ? One lane north of Grandma Nitti’s, on the same side too. The sign may have changed; it’s just a vertical rectangle now. Or perhaps I found the wrong shop? But when they asked who introduced me to the shop I mentioned you (a foreign lady who speaks excellent Chinese, does sketching and watercolors, and moved away a number of years ago) and they seemed to remember you.
For everyone’s reference, here’s the address:
EDIT: Bada has moved as of Sept. 2009; the new address, below, is about two alleys south of Grandma Nitti’s, and one alley to the east (Long2quan2), right next to a small park, on a corner.
台北市龍泉街87巷6號 Long2quan2 St., (one alley east of and parallel to Shi1da4 Rd.), Lane 87, #6. 2363-9307.
They have a very good variety of stuff, most of which is at reasonable prices (cheaper than mail order, after you add postage). A lot of the details here are for djkonstable’s benefit, so you know what NOT to buy in the US to bring here:
[color=blue]Acrylic paints:
Professional grade:
[b]Golden heavy 4 oz /b NT$420-1020 (then minus 20%), i.e., starting at NT$336, which is US$10.23 (at 32.86 NT / USD).
Golden Fluid 1 oz jars NT$120.
Liquitex 2 oz NT$110 (US$3.35) for most colors, $250 for specials (iridescent, metallic etc.)
Finity 59 ml tubes NT$130 - $200; compare to NT$128-$185 at AllArtSupplies.com, but after shipping that jumps to something like NT$180-NT$324/tube – so Daba is much cheaper on average. They don’t carry the larger size of Finity though.
Good quality student grade:
Winsor & Newton Galeria 60 ml tubes $80 (best choice for serious beginners in terms of quality vs. affordability, IMO)
Galeria 500 ml Titanium white was only $200, I think.
Also Rembrandt, Louvre (crap), and Holbein, with some mediums, retarders etc. in various brands, although perhaps not necessarily a complete range in every one.
glazing liquid (you have to ask for you4guang1yi4) by Golden.
gloss varnish for acrylics: has small bottles (256 ml?) of Golden for about $550, and 500ml of Rembrant brand for about $500, or something like that. [/color]
[color=brown]
Surfaces:
They carry both cotton and linen pre-primed pre-stretched canvases in a good variety of sizes. Something around 40x60 cm (roughly) might cost about $150 in canvas and $600 in linen. I’m pretty sure they have unstretched stuff too.
They have ‘canvas board’ which appears to be a very heavy cardboard or perhaps masonite covered with canvas. I think they had wood too. [/color]
[color=red]In pastels they have Van Gogh and a number of other brands. [/color]
[color=green]
In oils they have Van Gogh, Rembrandt, Holbein, Shinhan, Maimeri, Winton, Old Holland, Louvre, and Kusakabe.[/color]
They also have a wide range of brushes, acid-free papers and sketchbooks of every kind, and so on. This is a MUCH better shop than the ones on Heping (Hoping) road across from Shida. I don’t think I’ll be going back to those, nor will I be doing any more mail ordering.
I asked who their main clientele are and they said professional artists, as well as the college art student crowd. I can see why. GREAT shop – thanks Ironlady!!!