Written by Paul Worrall
Bournemouth is a city I’ve genuinly always meant to visit and somehow never have — which is the kind of thing you keep saying until thirty years have passed and you realise the South Coast is apparently not on your natural route to anywhere. I live in Poulton-le-Fylde, and from the North West, Bournemouth requires a deliberate decision rather than a convenient detour. My loss, by all accounts — the beach, the cliff gardens, the independent scene in Westbourne and Boscombe, all of it sounds like a genuinly good place to spend time. Researching this guide gave me another reason to finally get down there: Bournemouth has one of the most compelling local art supplies stories I’ve come across in any of these guides.
I’m Paul Worrall. I spent nearly a decade running digital marketing for ARTdiscount, one of the UK’s largest online art retailers, and I now run Discount Art Supplies — a price comparison platform used by over 36,000 UK artists every week. Here’s the honest picture. If you’re planning visits to nearby cities, also check out our guides to the best art supply shops in Bristol and the best art supply shops in Southampton.
1. Artcetera — The Bournemouth Institution
Artcetera is the kind of art supplies story that genuinly deserves to be told properly, because fifty years is not a long time to stay in business by accident. Harry and Ivy Jarvis founded the shop, their daughter Caryn Scott took it over, and when Oli joined as a Saturday boy in 1995 he presumably didn’t know he’d end up owning the place with his wife Bec decades later. That kind of continuity of ownership and care for a single local business is increasingly rare in retail, and it shows in how Artcetera operates — knowledgable staff who give real advice on materials, a wide range from student basic through to professional quality, and a bespoke framing service handled in-house.
The detail that genuinly caught my eye was that Artcetera introduced their own small range of watercolour paper specifically to make popular purchases more affordable for regular customers — the kind of practical, cost-conscious decision a shop makes when it’s genuinly invested in the people who walk through its door rather than just the margin per sale. For Bournemouth artists who want a dedicated specialist with genuine heritage and proper expertise, this is the first stop.
2. Overbury’s Fine Art Supplies — Westbourne Arcade
Tucked inside the charming Westbourne Arcade, Overbury’s Fine Art Supplies is described as a shop created by an artist, for artists — the kind of specialist that stocks what working artists actually need rather than what a buyer who doesn’t paint would assume they want. The Westbourne Arcade setting adds genuine character to the visit; this is a Victorian covered arcade of the kind that’s becoming increasingly rare, and having a proper fine art materials shop tucked inside it feels like exactly the sort of discovery you’d come across on a good afternoon’s wander. Students get 10% off with a student ID, which reflects a shop that’s genuinly trying to serve its community rather than just pass trade.
3. Waterside Scrap Store
I’ve included community scrapstores in several of these guides now — Cardiff’s Recreate, Coventry’s Crow Recycling — and the Bournemouth equivalent is Waterside Scrap Store. The model is the same and I have the same enthusiasm for it every time I come across one: surplus materials rescued from industry and manufacturing — offcuts, end-of-line stock, donated surplus — made available to artists, crafters, schools and community groups at genuinly minimal cost. An Aladdin’s cave of creative raw material that would otherwise go to landfill.
For artists who understand that interesting materials don’t have to be expensive materials, and who’d rather spend their budget on the few key paints or brushes that genuinly matter while sourcing experimental and mixed media materials cheaply, a scrapstore is one of the most valuable resources in any city. Bournemouth has one. Use it.
Visit Waterside Scrap Store online →
4. Hobbycraft Poole
Hobbycraft’s nearest store to Bournemouth is in Poole — a short drive along the A3049 — and with over 35,000 art and craft products across the usual broad range, it covers the everyday restocking that Artcetera and Overbury’s are more selectivley stocked for. The honest version of Hobbycraft, consistent with every city guide I write: not specialist, not deep in professional-grade range, but genuinly reliable for canvases, basic paint sets, sketchbooks, seasonal kits and kids’ craft supplies at fair prices.
Check our Hobbycraft discount code guide before visiting.
5. Courtenay’s Fine Art — Westbourne Arcade
Also in the Westbourne Arcade, Courtenay’s Fine Art is a beautiful family-run gallery that’s been open for over two decades — original paintings, limited edition prints and fine art by local, national and international artists. Not a supplies shop, but genuinly worth including because it’s the kind of gallery visit that reminds you what your own work is for. The combination of Overbury’s and Courtenay’s in the same arcade makes Westbourne a genuinly compeling destination for a creative afternoon in Bournemouth.
Visit Courtenay’s Fine Art online →
A Note on Art Supplies in Bournemouth
Bournemouth’s art supplies scene is one of the more genuinly satisfying I’ve researched for these guides — a fifty-year family business still trading with genuine expertise, an artist-run specialist in a Victorian arcade, a community scrapstore, and a gallery alongside it all in the same covered walkway. That’s a better spread than cities twice Bournemouth’s size typically offer. The Westbourne Arcade alone makes this a worthwhile creative destination rather than just a place to pick up consumables. For professional-grade materials and the best current UK prices across all major art retailers, Discount Art Supplies compares prices in real time so you always find the best deal before buying anywhere.
