Broad Canvas

Broad Canvas serves Oxford's artists, illustrators, and art students from a shop on the stretch of Broad Street between Blackwell's and the Sheldonian. It stocks a comprehensive range of fine art materials — oils, acrylics, watercolours, pastels, drawing pencils, printmaking supplies, papers, canvases, and brushes — sourced from professional-grade suppliers rather than the hobby-craft end of the market.

The shop is compact but well-organised, and the staff are practising artists themselves, which makes a real difference when you need advice on a specific medium or technique. They'll talk you through the differences between paper weights, recommend the right brush for your style, or help you match a colour you've been struggling with. This is specialist retail done properly — the kind of shop that online ordering can't replace because the hands-on guidance is part of the value.

For visitors who aren't artists, Broad Canvas still has appeal. The sketchbooks and drawing sets make excellent gifts, the range of handmade papers is beautiful in its own right, and the shop's location on Broad Street makes it an easy stop between the Bodleian and the Museum of the History of Science.

What to look for

The watercolour paint range is particularly well stocked, with individual tubes and pans from Winsor & Newton, Schmincke, and Daniel Smith. The paper section repays careful browsing — they carry handmade and specialist papers that are hard to find outside London. Sketchbooks and pocket drawing sets near the front make good, practical gifts. Art students should ask about the student discount.