About Charco
A store built by people who were tired of guessing.
Charco opened in 5th Block, Jayanagar, to give Bengaluru's painters, students and makers one place where the paper is on the counter, the brands are the ones in studios, and the person behind the till has an answer.
Our story
Why the hand holds a C.
The name is a nod to charcoal, the first material most of us ever drew with, and the mark is a hand making a C: the gesture of holding a brush, a pencil, a stick of chalk. Making things by hand is the whole point.
Before Charco, buying serious art materials in south Bengaluru meant a trip across the city, an online order placed blind, or a stationery shop with three brands and no one to ask. We wanted a store where a first-year fine arts student and a working illustrator would both find what they need, and where the conversation at the counter is worth the visit.
So we stocked the paper mills (Arches, Saunders Waterford, Fabriano, Canson, Strathmore), the paint houses (Winsor & Newton, Daler Rowney, Liquitex, Sennelier, Daniel Smith, Golden) and the Indian staples everyone learned on (Camlin, Camel, Anupam, Chitrapat), side by side, and put a workshop room in the middle of it all.
Mission
Make good materials easy to find, understand and afford.
Stock a considered range across every price point, keep it on the shelf, and explain the difference between two tubes without the jargon.
Vision
Be the store Bengaluru’s artists send their friends to.
A neighbourhood art shop that grows with the community it serves: more workshops, more makers, more first paintings pinned proudly on more walls.
How we work
Four things you can hold us to.
01
Try before you buy
Open sheets, swatch cards and test brushes live on the counter. You should know how a paper takes a wash before you pay for a pad of it.
02
Honest ranges
A student set is not a worse choice, it is a different one. We will tell you when the cheaper option is the right one for what you are making.
03
Stock that artists actually use
Every line on our shelves is there because someone asked for it, used it and came back. If it is missing, tell us.
04
A room for the community
The workshop space in the store is open to artists who want to teach. It is how we meet the people who keep us honest.
Come and say hello.
First floor, 38th Cross Road, 5th Block Jayanagar. Open every day.