Welcome to Utrecht Portland!

Hello, my name is Kelly McCarty I am the manager of Utrecht’s Portland store, located in the heart of the Pearl district, near most of the major art galleries and the Museum of Contemporary Craft.  I have been working at Utrecht for almost four years, starting out as a part time associate, becoming manager a year and a half ago.  We have some of the most experienced art associates you will find, and we pride ourselves on being your source for trusted information about art materials.

I have been an artist now for a quarter of a century, taking my first art class as an undergraduate at Pacific Lutheran University in 1981.  I have over six years of experience as an art retailer, have owned my own art gallery in La Conner, Washington, was represented by the Lucia Douglas Gallery in Bellingham, Washington, and have shown my work at dozens of alternative venues in Washington and Oregon.  I am a painter and sculptor, but I couldn’t draw my way out of a closet!

We are located at 1122 NW Everett Street, just a couple blocks northwest of Powell’s bookstore.  Utrecht Portland is a full service art supplies store carrying products from hundreds of national brands.  Utrecht is also a manufacturer, and we have been making oil and acrylic paints in our Brooklyn, New York factory since the 1950’s.  Some of the great abstract expressionist work you’ve seen in museums was done with Utrecht paint!  Professional artists today still know Utrecht as a brand that means quality at a great price – if you haven’t tried Utrecht paint then come by and ask for a sample so you can experience the quality of Utrecht paints yourself.

Every associate at Utrecht Portland is a working artist (ok, we’ve got one poet).  Our senior associate, Daniel “Frank” Giacometti has over 19 years of experience with Utrecht -and the best last name in the art business.  He and his brother used to run our New York store, and visiting artists still come in and ask for Frank because of his excellent customer service.  Our A.M.1 and resident poet, Dana, has 9 years of customer service experience and handles our special orders.  If you need something unique, she will help you get it.  Eva and Kimber are working artists who have both been featured recently in the art publication Portland Modern, and Nishiki is a PSU art grad and another working artist who regularly shows in Portland.  Heather, Nick and Alex are our student associates who all get straight A’s in art material knowledge.

At Portland Utrecht, we help everyone from Portland’s top professional artists, architects and art instructors to beginners and hobbyists.  It doesn’t matter what your skill level is, what we care about is art, and we can help you achieve your dreams and visions.  Ask anyone - at Utrecht we take the time to teach you about art materials and we share our knowledge and experience so that your art can become the best it can be.  That’s why we’ve become known as “The Trusted Resource™.”

Please come visit us soon, we’d love to see you!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 4th, 2007 at 2:57 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.