We support artists at all stages of their artistic journey. As a leading art supply company, we provide artists, educators, students, and our associates with the tools, assistance, and training needed to grow, innovate, and reach their creative potential. BLICK Art Materials is family-owned and serving artists since 1911.

With excellent service for a quality shopping experience, we want to ensure you find the best art supplies at the lowest prices. Our goal is to make your shopping experience easy and enjoyable, so you can find the quality art supplies that you need quickly and affordably. With one of the highest customer satisfaction ratings in the industry, we hold true to continuously providing the most competitive prices by monitoring them each and every day.

Our commitment to excellence is supported by a team that's friendly, welcoming, and knowledgeable in all areas of art supplies. We proudly work with local artists and arts organizations across the country, and support a variety of national events as well as local community events.
In the early 1900s, every store window in America depended on a skilled hand and a steady pen. Before digital printing and standardized signage, retail signs were meticulously hand-lettered—a craft that required precision, speed, and the right materials.

Blick Art Materials was born from that craft. What started in 1911 as a small mail-order business has grown into the largest art supply retailer in the United States. This is the story of Blick’s beginnings and the best-selling tool that started it all: the Payzant Pen.

The Showcard Writer

Born in 1882 in Galesburg, Illinois, Dick Ernest Blick was the son of English immigrants. He grew up in his father's dry goods store, where hand-lettered displays were part of daily business. Likely practiced from an early age, he went on to study lettering and window trimming at Chicago's Koester School.

His specialty was showcard writing, a forgotten commercial art that powered retail before the age of digital printing. Placed in windows and on counters, hand-lettered showcards announced new merchandise, promoted sales, and drew in customers. The work demanded equal parts speed and style.

Blick had both. Working across pen, brush, and early airbrush systems, he combined bold lettering, stylized alphabets, and graphic flourishes to catch eyes and drive sales. He also published lettering guides featuring original alphabets for others in the trade and earned national recognition, including a second-place award at the National Association of Window Trimmers of America convention.

And like most artists, he paid close attention to his tools.
The Payzant Pen

The story goes that Blick was shopping in Chicago when he noticed an unusual craftsman's pen and immediately recognized what it could do for showcard work.

The Payzant was a single-stroke lettering pen designed to form complete letters in one fluid motion. It came in six sizes, with a curved nib and an adjustable gap between the tines that let artists control line width on the fly. A built-in reservoir kept the ink flowing without constant refilling, and the pen produced a consistent line regardless of direction, allowing a showcard writer to move from bold headlines to fine detail without switching tools.

Traditional broad-edged pens and sign-painting tools weren’t built for showcard lettering, especially as uniform-width Gothic styles gained popularity in the U.S. The Payzant solved that problem cleanly.

Blick adapted the pen to his trade—and soon realized that he had found a tool worth building a business around.
Building Blick

In 1911, Blick and his wife Grace launched The Card Writer’s Supply Company. The entire operation—a typewriter and a stock of Payzant Pens ready to ship—fit on their kitchen table.

The timing was right. Chicago, just a few hours north, was the capital of American mail-order commerce. Catalogs benefited from special low postal rates, and the U.S. Postal Service had more than doubled its reach in previous decades.

The Payzant No. 1 sold for a dollar. By 1913, Merchants Record and Show Window, the leading trade journal for window trimmers and showcard writers, was running Blick’s ads. Orders followed from around the country, with customers ranging from professional sign makers to librarians creating desk bulletins.

As the business grew, so did the catalog: Blick Masterstroke Brushes, Blick Black Cat Card Writing Colors, paints, poster paper, inks, and cardboard. The Card Writer’s Supply Company became Dick Blick Art Supplies, and the customer base expanded to include painters, illustrators, teachers, and students.
A Legacy of Growth

In 1948, Robert Metzenberg purchased the company, becoming Blick’s “second founder” and ushering in a new era of growth. Under Metzenberg family ownership—now in its third generation—Blick Art Materials grew from a mail-order business into the largest art supply retailer in the United States .

The first Blick retail store opened in Galesburg in 1974, and the catalog expanded to more than 400 pages, eventually evolving into an online assortment of over 90,000 products. Today, Blick operates more than 60 stores nationwide.

What began with a single pen for a single craft evolved into a destination for artists and creatives of every kind, from professional artists and K–12 educators to students, writers, and first-time hobbyists. Blick Black Cat India Ink, an original catalog staple, remains a customer favorite.

While the tools have evolved, our mission remains the same: connecting analog creators with the very best materials.