Owner of Montrose art store pictured a vibrant future
With three locations in all, independent business serves everyone from students to world-class painters
Few people probably consider the cost of an artist’s supplies when purchasing an oil painting, watercolor or mixed-media collage.
Yet a specialty paintbrush can cost as much as $300. Ditto for professional-grade canvases, which can retail for $400 in the 60-inch size.
When artists, whether budding or world-class, need supplies for their profession, many turn to Texas Art Supply in Montrose. The store opened in the 1950s to serve the burgeoning arts movement there.
“Rice University came along first, in the early 1900s,” said Eepi Chaad, event coordinator for Texas Art Supply. “Then, you had the museum district build up around the school, and the Montrose area come along after that.”
Louis Adler, a dentist by training, bought the art store in the early ’70s.
“I’ve always had a deep passion for the visual arts,” Adler said. “My uncle was a notable art dealer in New York City who represented Picasso and other prominent artists, so I grew up around art and was influenced by it. When there was an opportunity to purchase a small art supply store around 45 years ago, I jumped at the chance.”
His longevity in business — Adler has two other stores in addition to the flagship Montrose site — can be attributed at least in part to the ability of independent retailers to cater to local needs in a way that national players, such as Hobby Lobby and Michael’s in this case, can’t. That’s according to Howard Davidowitz, chairman of Davidowitz & Associates, a national retail consulting and investment banking firm headquartered in New York City.
“They can work with small, unique suppliers who offer merchandize you won’t see anywhere else,” Davidowitz said. “Large suppliers won’t work with people who can only supply a few of their stores, but small retailers aren’t limited
by that. They can stock a more creative inventory; they’re only limited by their own imaginations.”
Texas Art Supply has fueled many imaginations over the past six decades. By 1985, Adler had expanded to the Piney Point area and to Friendswood, though home base remained the 80,000-squarefoot Montrose store and its adjoining warehouse, which stock some 60,000 art products. Seventyfive of the chain’s 100 employees work there.
The Texas Art Supply stores serve everyone from architecture students at the University of Houston and Rice University to worldclass painters like Justin Garcia and special-effects pros like Rudy Campos.
“They’ve got the biggest selection, the hard-tofind stuff,” Campos said. “I have a lot of different projects going on, and I hop from one project to the next. If I’m ever stuck, they’ve got a whole team of artists there to help me.”
“In the beginning, it was mostly architects, engineers and graphic artists who used us, but all of that’s gone digital,” said Lisa Hedge, the store’s general manager. “Now more of our customers are fine artists.”
“In 1970, Houston had barely 1 million people, and it didn’t have the diversity it enjoys today,” Adler said. “Today, Houston has a vibrant art community that’s supported by an ecosystem of museums, galleries, schools, trade shows and unique events like the Art Car parade.”
Hedge said people sometimes assume Texas Art Supply will be pricey, given the store sits on 2 acres in the heart of Montrose.
“Since our owner purchased the land in the 1970s, when real estate was still reasonable, that’s really not the case,” Hedge said.
In addition to the brick-and-mortar stores, Texas Art Supply sells merchandise online.
“We don’t offer all of our products, though, because this is still a tactile business, where people want to touch the products,” Hedge said. “But what you’ll find with a lot of artists is that once they find a certain type of paint or canvas they like, they’ll stick with it and then it’s just a matter of reordering.”
In addition to selling supplies, the Montrose store offers monthly community workshops.
“Ninety percent of our workshops are free to the public, and the rest have a minimal charge for supplies,” Chaad said. “We do tons of workshops that are hands-on, for both grown-ups and kids.”