Canson

Canson is a French company that has been manufacturing the finest papers and Art Supplies since 1557. Canson is considered to be the world leader in fine art papers for drawing, pastels, painting and printing. Their long history includes the invention of the first hot air balloon in 1782 using Canson Paper and the stylised hot air balloon in the company’s logo is in honour of the company’s founders. Canson has continued to innovate since with the creation of tracing paper and photo paper. Canson even created laid drawing paper for Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres. Many of our greatest artists have used Canson Papers including Henri Matisse, Edgar Degas, Marc Chagall and Picasso. Canson is now owned by the Hamelin group, a European supplier of art, school and office supplies. Together, Hamelin and Canson have created the Fonds Canson pour l’art et le papier (Foundation for Art and Paper) and its Canson Award is given annually to an emerging artist working with paper.

Pullingers stock Canson Mi-Teintes coloured paper for pastels and charcoal. Mi-Teintes sheets are acid free, textured and made with 60% cotton. The Canson XL Spiral Sketch Pads are extremely economical containing 60 or 120 sheets of 90gsm cartridge paper. We also sell Canson Illustration Pads for use with ink, marker pens, airbrush, watercolour and pencil. The 250gsm ultra white paper is extra smooth making it popular with illustrators and graphic artists. Methods in paper making have changed but Canson’s use of pure French stream water and high quality natural fibres combined with centuries of experience continue to give us the finest quality art papers.