Art Essentials

For 12 years Sam Winkelmeyer and Cary Dixon have helped bring out the Picasso, da Vinci, Pollock and Cassat in professional and amateur artists alike.

Winkelmeyer and Dixon own Art Essentials, the retail shop at 28 E. Victoria St. With 3,850 square feet of paints and brushes, pastels, drawing pencils, canvases, specialty papers, clay and other supplies, Art Essentials claims the largest inventory in town devoted to fine arts.

The store opened in 1988 when Winkelmeyer and Dixon, who had worked together in the art department of Frazee Paints, decided to establish their own place.

"Frazee shut down the art departments (in their stores) ... to focus on their regular paints," Winkelmeyer said. "When that happened, Cary and I realized a hole was going to be created." To fill that hole, Winkelmeyer and Dixon gathered the people they know in the business, called on their own connections in the industry and brought them from Frazee to Art Essentials.

"It sounds a lot easier than it actually was," said Winkelmeyer. "Everyone says, 'Oh, let's start a business so we can make our own hours, 'but no one realizes you have to work seven days a week. I wouldn't be able to do this without a partner."

Not that Winkelmeyer's complaining, though. Last year alone Art Essentials reached $1.3 million in sales, and not be accident. He and Dixon have created Art Essentials as a place where artists can find items that tend not be available in arts and crafts or chain stores.

They carry, for example, seven different kinds of watercolor paint, nine kinds of oil and six kinds of acrylic. They also stock 10 brands of paintbrushes, including the full complement of styles and types offered by each brand for different painting uses.

As an independent shop, Art Essentials also has access to supplies and materials other stores can't or prefer not to carry. For instance, Winkelmeyer and Dixon stock paint manufactured by a small company run be a pair of artists who began making their own stuff when they couldn't find paint they liked.

"We've added things we felt had niches," Winkelmeyer said. "We've also devoted a pretty big section to kids' art. There's a big need for sets so kids can get inspired and decide to become artists. What we'd love to do is start a series of classes, but we haven't been able to devote space to that."

With that desire in mind, Winkelmeyer and Dixon are looking for larger quarters, some place upwards of 5,000 square feet where they can add art instruction to their retail business

Pastels and watercolor paint seem to be most popular media in Santa Barbara, based on Art Essentials' sales.

"We carry six kinds of professional grade pastels, not including sets. They all seem to do very well. so that indicates to me there's a huge group doing pastesls," Winkelmeyer said.

One of business owners' greatest difficulties, he added, is getting non-artists into the store.

"People tend to be intimidated by art supply stores," he said. "According to surveys, only 5 percent of the entire population does art. People think if you can't draw like Leonardo (da Vinci) you shouldn't do it at all."

To catch the attention of these people, Art Essentials also carries note cards, stationery and other specialty papers.

The business has experienced a few changes in its lifetime. Originally at 136 E Victoria St., the shop moved to its current location in 1993. In 1998 it expanded into the property next door, formerly occupied by Atkins Crafts.

At one point, Winkelmeyer and Dixon had a second shop in the fairview Shoping Center in Golelta but they closed ti because, Winkeymeyer said "it was too much work to handle both."

Art Essentials is open 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday. Winkelmeyer and Dixon offer a 20 percent discount to students in kindergarden through college and to teachers and seniors.