Our Start
In 1990, Bob Petkun left the corporate world of big business and engineering to start out on his own. He saw an opportunity in tole painting, and quickly established his newly acquired company, Tole Americana (later renamed the Crafts Americana Group publishing under the Artist’s Club title) to sell paint, surfaces, and brushes supply directly to painters.

Today, with Bob’s direction, Artist’s Club is run by a small team of artists and merchandisers who have a combined total of over twenty five years in the tole painting business. We have an in-house design team who create designs for our exclusive surfaces which we hand select at the manufacturing plants overseas. We also have nationally published artists on board who provide us with exclusive designs.

Our Commitment To You
When our team couldn’t find brushes they loved at an affordable price, they met with brush manufacturers in person to carefully review and test each brush component until together they created the perfect brushes for painting with acrylics, brushes that have bounce, a sharp tip that retains its shape, and a weight that feels good in your hand. The end result was tested and retested by painters and focus groups until we felt confident that we had created the best brush on the market- Papillon by the Artist’s Club. Now we sell the end result directly to you online and through our catalog so that you can get the highest quality brush on the market at half the price.

Our Facilities and Our People

Our distribution center is located in Columbus, Ohio at 1250 Boltonfield St, Columbus, OH 43228 in order to enable us to keep shipping costs low by shipping from the center of the country.

We also love meeting fellow painters. If you’re going to be in the Portland, Oregon/Vancouver, Washington area, please give us a call at 1-800-574-6454 between the hours of 8am and 5pm PST, Mon-Fri to arrange to visit our headquarters at 13118 N.E. 4th St., Vancouver, WA, 98684.

Management Team:
Bob Petkun, President
Kelley Petkun, Vice President and Creative Director
Karen Johnson, Vice President, Merchandising for Connecting Threads, Artist's Club
Tina Birch, Vice President, Merchandising for Knit Picks
Carla Salazar, Vice President, Finance and Administration
Kara Tripp, Director of Operations
Marci Hansen, Vice President, Marketing
Brenda Ericson, Director of Customer Service
 
Our Manufacturing Partners
We not only have high standards for our products, we have very high standards for the International manufacturers we choose to work with. Members of our team have visited each of these factories personally to ensure that their facilities and labor practices are in line with both Artists Club’s and our customers’ expectations. If you’d like to visit our manufacturers, please e-mail or call us and we will connect you with a factory representative.