The 5 Best Art Supply Shops in Cardiff (2026 Guide)

May 19, 2026

The 5 Best Art Supply Shops in Cardiff | Discount Art Supplies

Written by Paul Worrall

Cardiff gets better every time I look at it. The Welsh capital has undergone a genuine transformation over the last twenty years — the Bay, the Principality Stadium, the independent food and arts scene that’s grown up around Roath and Canton — and it now has a creative community that deserves better art supply provision than it sometimes gets credit for.

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. I know what makes a good art supplies shop from years of watching what artists actually buy, where they buy it and what brings them back. Cardiff’s options are more interesting than most guides suggest. Here’s my honest take.

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 Birmingham.

1. The Pen & Paper — Cardiff City Centre

The Pen and Paper art supplies shop Cardiff city centre

The Pen & Paper is consistently the most recommended art and stationery shop in Cardiff — and for good reason. Located in the city centre, it’s the kind of well-stocked independent that Cardiff’s creative community relies on for everything from fine art materials through to stationery, craft supplies and gifts. The range is genuine rather than token — this isn’t a gift shop with a few tubes of paint at the back. It’s a proper art supplies destination that takes its stock seriously.

Reviewers consistently praise the staff — knowledgeable, approachable, the kind of people who have strong opinions about their products because they use them. In an industry where that’s increasingly rare as chains dominate, The Pen & Paper stands out. It’s a place you can ask a question and get a useful answer rather than a blank look.

For Cardiff artists who want a reliable city centre option for paints, papers, brushes and stationery — The Pen & Paper is the natural first stop. The kind of shop that makes a city feel like it cares about its artists.

2. Hobbycraft Cardiff

The honest version of Hobbycraft rather than the dismissive one. I know plenty of art world people who sniff at Hobbycraft — and I’ve never quite understood it. Having spent years watching what UK hobbyist artists actually buy, I can tell you that Hobbycraft serves a significant proportion of that market and serves it well.

For everyday consumables — canvases, basic acrylics, sketchbooks, brushes, craft materials — it’s hard to beat for convenience and price. With children in the house who treat art supplies as disposable rather than precious, I’ve developed a healthy appreciation for a shop where you can stock up without wincing at the bill. Hobbycraft Cardiff is exactly that kind of resource for parents, teachers and hobbyists who need reliable stock at fair prices.

It’s not where you’d go for professional-grade materials or anything specialist. But for the majority of recreational painters and crafters in Cardiff, it earns its place without apology. Check our paints and mediums deals page before visiting — we sometimes find better prices online on identical lines.

Find Hobbycraft Cardiff →

3. Recreate Scrap Store — Ely Industrial Estate

Recreate Scrap Store Cardiff sustainable art materials

This one is genuinely special — and genuinely Cardiff. Recreate is a not-for-profit scrap store that rescues materials from industry and manufacturing — offcuts, surplus stock, end of line materials — and makes them available to artists, crafters, schools and community groups at minimal cost. An Aladdin’s cave of recycled creative possibility, as one long-term visitor described it. Acrylic sheets, cardboard tubes, fabric offcuts, industrial surplus of every kind — the kind of raw material that artists with imagination can turn into extraordinary things.

Worth checking their website or social media before visiting to confirm current opening hours as they have moved premises to Ely Industrial Estate, CF5 4AB.

There’s something philosophically aligned between what Recreate does and what good art practice is about — seeing potential in materials others have overlooked, finding creative value in things that would otherwise go to waste. I’ve spent years building an artist community of 15,000 people at Discount Art Supplies and places like Recreate are precisely the kind of resource that makes a creative community genuinely function rather than just exist.

Support them. They’re worth it.

Visit Recreate online →

4. Cardiff Open Art School — Cardiff Metropolitan University

A slightly different entry — but worth including because of what it offers artists in Cardiff that a conventional art supplies shop can’t.

Cardiff Metropolitan University’s Cardiff Open Art School runs a programme of courses covering pottery, painting, drawing, photography, printmaking, design thinking and craft. Courses are open to everyone — not just students — regardless of experience level. Whether you’ve never picked up a pencil or you’re developing a serious practice, there’s something in the programme.

For artists who want to buy supplies and develop skills simultaneously, combining a visit to The Pen & Paper with a course at Cardiff Met is the kind of day that actually moves your practice forward. Better materials and better technique are both part of the same equation. I’d always rather see artists investing in learning alongside supplies — it’s what separates the painters who improve from the ones who collect materials without growing.

Visit Cardiff Open Art School →

5. The Works — Cardiff City Centre

The Works art supplies Cardiff city centre

The Works divides opinion in art circles. It’s not specialist. The range isn’t deep. But at the price points The Works operates at, it makes basic art materials genuinely accessible to people who might otherwise never start.

Canvases, sketch pads, pencils, starter acrylic sets — all at prices that make experimenting affordable. For parents buying supplies for children, teachers stocking a classroom or anyone who wants to try a new medium without significant financial commitment, The Works in Cardiff city centre serves a real purpose. The art world is better when more people can afford to participate in it. The Works helps with that.

I’d always recommend checking our current deals and price comparisons before any physical shop visit — but for grab-and-go convenience in the city centre, The Works earns its spot.

A Note on What’s Changed in Cardiff

One name that won’t appear in this guide but deserves a mention: Peterson Art Supplies in Rhiwbina. Dan Peterson built a genuinely impressive specialist art shop in a converted butcher’s premises on Heol Y Deri — documenting the entire renovation on YouTube — before announcing its closure. It was exactly the kind of passionate independent that Cardiff needed more of. The closure is a loss for the city’s art supplies scene and a reminder of how precarious specialist retail remains even when the product and the passion are both genuinely excellent.

Cardiff’s art supplies offering is more compact than a city of its size and cultural ambition deserves. Online remains the most practical option for professional-grade materials and specialist products — and at Discount Art Supplies we compare prices across all major UK retailers in real time, so you can always find the best current deal before buying.