If you love art, steer clear of Art @ Home…read more I haven't been to any of the company's other stores but can tell you their Bold Street branch is one of the most depressing shops I've visited. Following in the footsteps of companies like Ikea and John Lewis, they sell generic art prints that are produced on a massive scale. Whilst Ikea and John Lewis actually stock some pretty good photographic prints of New York and Tokyo, Art @ Home specialise in mainstream and unimaginative prints of sunflowers, roses, landscapes, portraits and abstract paintings. In short, Art @ Home sell framed and unframed prints for property developers, corporate offices and coffee chains!

One of the most thoughtful, and coincidentally cheapest, presents you can get somebody is a framed…read morepicture. To find a nice photograph of a happy moment or a poster and pair tickets from a concert you really enjoyed and stick it behind some glass in a black metal or wooden frame is both simple and effective. Art at Home is the ideal place to get hold of straightforward frames at reasonable prices. The staff are chatty, helpful and if you bring with you what you're trying to frame they will try their hardest to find a good frame to fit your needs. The art for sale in the shop itself is a little hit and miss, for every Gauguin print there are three or four 'pop art' silhouette canvases of Audrey Hepburn or John Lennon. They do carry an excellent selection of cards here though, blank on the inside with art and photographic prints on the front - perfect for any occasion - especially if you don't fancy giving your nan that card with the fart joke in that you've been keeping in your bottom drawer.

Housed in a beautiful art deco space next to Rennies Art Gallery, Rennies Arts & Crafts is a family…read morerun business that has been supplying painters and craft-makers for the last three decades. Like all art shops these days, the prices are steep so it helps that they have a wide selection of everything from canvases, acrylics and paint brushes to card, portfolios and letraset. Students get 10% off and there's a designated area promoting local artists, studios and workshops.

It's obviously hard for any reviewer to go the whole hog and give this place 5 stars because it's…read morejust an art suplliers after all, but as the sole supplier of the city's arts and crafts items it probably deserves more praise. For me however Rennie's reeks of middle class sunday painters who will just have a dabble with a brush once they have finished with The Guardian. The selection is very extensive with everything from oil based paints, acrylics and waters to all sorts of papers and cards, pencils and brushes. The prices on the other hand are not cheap. This is hardly struggling artist friendly and you will rarely see the street artists and creatives changing the face of Liverpool buying their gear in bulk from here - it is aimed at those with an expensive hobby. And all of this is sort of reflected in the gallery next door. Largely figuratively based pieces in a Vetriano style you are hardly going to find anything cutting edge or unique but Rennie's does stock a lot of original pieces available to take off the shelf.

Service is great, the docents were helpful and super kind. When we asked how to best attack the…read moremuseum, they recommended top to bottom - it worked out great. The selection of works at the Walker is better than advertised. They have a good mix of works you can spend more than two hours alone on the second floor alone. The paintings are well labeled on the classic frames, and the background behind the classic works don't leave you guessing - even on the few abstracts. Also on display are the John Moore Award winners. This art award is given to works composed by native Britains artists and brings together the best in contemporary style painters. If you wish, you can pay 5£ to see Tom Wood's Photie Man exposition. We skipped, not just because of the cost, but for time. The cafe is in the first fourier and it serves soft drinks, espressos, and small pastries. Value is great...this place is FREE.

Been going here since a child .. taken my children and then my grandchildren...one of the best…read moreGalleries I've visited ... extra activities for children to encourage them to appreciate the Art

This review probably should be prefaced with the fact that I do not generally like modern art. I…read moredon't often understand it, appreciate it, or care. Call it ignorance, call it taste, call it what you will. I am, however, always open to viewing it because there have been a few instances were I have fallen in love with modern pieces. Unless it involves video. Silent video, or ones that emit monosyllabic nonsense over images of parking garages irritate me to no end. Something to that effect was inside Open Eye, so what little interest I had was lost the moment I walked into the room housing that exhibit. But, to each his own concerning art. The gallery itself was odd. I had read about it in Itchy and, looking for something new to do in town, decided to drag BF there. We had a heck of a time finding it. Even BF noted that he practically lives on Wood Street and had never noticed it. Once we found it, we had trouble with the door. The girl stared right at us as this was happening, but decided to just stare at us blankly instead of helping. We were already a bit fish-out-of-water esque with the type of gallery it was- this did not help. The gallery is tiny and when we were there, it was deathly silent. We weren't even greeted when we entered- more blank stares. There wasn't a single soul in there and the artwork on display was sparse. It was just plain creepy, especially with the silent film flickering in the corners of our eyes. We browsed for as long as we could stand, politely looked at the "gift shop," then hightailed out of there. It was a strange seven minutes to say the least. I heard the gallery is moving to Albert Dock, so I might give it another chance once it's settled. As long as there's no video.

I am far from being an art critic, no hang on, perhaps I am in that I generally find myself being…read morevery critical of a lot of "pieces of art". I am a big fan of calligraphy for example, the Taj Mahal is a piece of art to me also. However some of the stuff that gets passed as "great pieces of art" these days is just absolute drivel!!!! I'm sorry but this idea of art is subjective and there is no right or wrong and it is merely a form of expression just wreaks to me. Of course there is a right and wrong, one cannot use "art" as an excuse to entertain individual selfish desires at the expense of others. Damien Hirst is one such "artist", I don't care how much his work was sold for, if a dissected animal is a work of art then my name is Bruce Wayne and I painted the Mona Lisa!!! "Open eye" gallery thus for me at least was rather a yawn falling asleep close eye gallery. I found majority of the art work boring, amateurish and resembling something we had drawn using water colours in primary school, and with much better results I may add. How do these "artists" get away with it??? I mean I implore you not to but if you are curious, go check out Chris Keeney's work on show from 9th to 31st July. Look for Portrait of a Diva. This is a perfect example, am I blind.....or is this a piece of junk!!! Looks like someone made a bad sculptor, saw that it was awful....smashed it because it was awful....then super glued it back together and showed up with it at the art exhibition....to the Artist's amazement the delusional characters at the exhibition stared at it no doubt in some form of drug induced frenzy and decided to label it a fine piece of art...justifying their ridulous decision by citing parrot fashion something uttered by some artist in an important "art" book they read not long ago!!! Apologies Chris Keeney if you are reading this, just my opinion mate. I'm sure you will go on making your pieces of art and being successful and I will be forever ignorant on the "art" of being an art critic. Unless open eye gallery decided to start displaying decent art by decent artists I will urge you to avoid this place. Why don't you walk into an Apple shop and pick up an iPad if you fancy admiring a piece of modern art!!

Max Spielmann is a decent photo store where you can order prints both at the shop and online. In…read moreaddition, you can also purchase a range of gifts such as photo frames and other photo related accessories like picture albums and disposable cameras. Their service is usually good in general but sometimes it does take a couple of days or two to process your photos; this may be due to the time of season and how many photos you have ordered. I have used their digital print service many times before and about 30% of the time, I have had to wait an extra day or so after the estimated collection date. In terms of the quality of printouts, they actually seem great but when I compared to printouts from Jessops or Boots photo, they fell below standard due to a slightly duller appearance.

Some really beautiful pictures here…read more The independent art gallery specialises in historical and modern prints, originals, paintings and photographs. Specialists in images of Liverpool, shipping and sport. Images of Liverpool include Royal Liver Building, Albert Dock, Liverpool Overhead Railway and Antony Gormley's 'Another Place' Crosby Beach. Respected marine artists that they show include Gordon Ellis, Samuel Milton Brown, Brian Entwistle, Gordon Bauwens, Norman Colebourne and Les Cowle. Pic's of Liverpool and Everton football clubs are also stocked at Liverpool Pictures.

Liverpool Pictures is an independent art gallery selling prints of Liverpool, located on the Albert…read moreDocks, it's a great place for tourists and proud locals to pick up pictures as memories of the beautiful scenery in the surrounding Dock area and waterfront. They have great postcards for 60p and really cheap prints of the sunset over the mersey and the Three Graces. They also sell some rather interesting black and white prints of Old Liverpool so you can really see how the city has changed and developed over the years. It's a good little gallery that captures the essence of the 'pool in still life.

For the creative minds out there, head to Green Lane where you'll find the perfect place for you…read more It's a big, green craft palace called Craftys. Whatever your talent or hobby I'm sure that you're every requirement can be met here; Craftys stock allsorts from card making to flower arranging. There are two sections within the shop, the main being crammed with stickers, decoupage sheets, ribbon, and beads to name a few. Towards the back there is a room dedicated to paper and card, shelves stretching from floor to ceiling, neatly displaying all different types and colours. We've bought the paper for our wedding stationary from here, so I should know. We've also bought some of their decoupage sheets for my Fiancée's card making Nan and not only did she love them but they also look great on her cards. The staffs are friendly and are more than happy to help you in any way they can. It's definitely worth a visit.

If you are into Arts & Crafts this is the place for you. From top to bottom this store is crammed…read morefull of goodies. Believe me if they haven't got it then it possibly isn't available and they have some great bargains. They have an on line store if you are to far away but try to visit as the fun is in touching. A brilliant shop and great staff too!!