Grosse Pointe Woods Art Supply Store Serving Creativity for 40 years

In this age of “big box” stores, it’s a clever business that can stay independent, relevant and, well, open. It’s for this reason that Grosse Pointers should congratulate Rainy Day Art & Framing Co. in the Woods, which this month celebrates its 40th anniversary.

During its four decades of service to the area, Rainy Day has offered a full line of art supplies for beginners and experts, taught workshops and classes, given professional on-site assistance and training, and provided personalized service. 

According to Kelly O’Hara, Rainy Day’s head sales associate, the store has at times changed its focus over the past 40 years to meet the needs of customers, most recently embracing a “return to basics.” O’Hara, who has worked at Rainy Day for nearly 15 years, said that technology has–somewhat counterintuitively–spurred an interest in the fundamentals of art.

O’Hara began working at Rainy Day when it was owned by Du-All Drafting & Art Supply and operated primarily as a source of drafting supplies. “Ten years ago, architecture was a really big thing,” said O’Hara. “But now architecture students typically take one hand-drafting class and do all the rest of their work on computers. So the drafting components of the store have dwindled down and we’re once again concentrating on the basics of art, on the craft itself.”

When it opened in 1971, the store was owned by the Snow family. It used to fire pottery for customers, and in 1983 the kiln blew up, resulting in the destruction of much of the store. While it was being rebuilt, Rainy Day operated out of what is now String Beads on Fleetwood Street. In 1985, the Snows sold Rainy Day to a company called Northwest Blueprint, which in turn collaborated with another company and named the store “Rainy Day/Creative World,” making it part of a citywide chain. In 1992, Rainy Day was purchased by Du-All, which added “Art Supply” to the Rainy Day name. The store was run by Du-All for more than 13 years, when they finally sold it to its current owner, Lisa Schafer Amori.

Amori, who specializes in architectural portraits and location photography, fondly relates her lifelong interest in the store on its website. As a little girl she used to shop there for paints and supplies with her father, a hobby artist. “Going to Rainy Day was always fun and sometimes a little intimidating,” Amori recalls on the site. “There were always these ‘cool, arty people’ there who knew a lot about art and products.”

Amori has “warmed it up a bit,” said O’Hara, in part by bringing in consignment art work to liven up the walls. Much of the work is by Tamm Whitty, who uses a portion of the store to display her work. Highlights of her oeuvre include block prints on fabric and papers as well as polymer clay renderings from her blocks, which are hand-painted, baked and framed.

The store’s framing business has also become more prominent under Amori’s ownership, says O’Hara.

“Framing is a huge part of our business,” said O’Hara. “ Before Lisa bought the store, a lot of people didn’t know we did framing.” That was largely because the back area, where framing is done, was obscured by five aisles of merchandise spaced closely together. “We took out an aisle, remodeled and added lighting, and now you can see straight through to the back,” said O’Hara.”

The store caters to artists around the Detroit-area as well as students both young and old. The store offers six-week classes in traditional disciplines such as drawing, watercolor and calligraphy, but it has also carved out a niche for itself by holding hard-to-find courses such as manga, which has been on the schedule for three years and draws large groups of young people.

A principle strength of the store – one that sets it apart from other art supply vendors such as Joann’s or Michael’s – is the art training of its staff. Amori and two of O’Hara’s colleagues studied at Detroit’s Center for Creative Studies, and O’Hara studied painting at Macomb Community College.

“I think customers have more faith that we know what we’re talking about,” said O’Hara. “When a new product comes out, our reps will bring it in to us and we’ll have a chance to try it out before it hits the market. In some instances, I’ve learned more about art supplies from working at the store than from my teachers. In fact, teachers sometimes come to us and say, what do you do with this? How do you handle it?”

Largely because of its personal touch and knowledgeable staff, Rainy Day has held out where other similar shops have failed.

“There used to be a lot of art supply stores on Mack, and now we’re the last one,” said O’Hara. “We’re constantly trying to find new ways to bring in new business.”

One strategy Rainy Day finds effective is to vigorously recruit new lines of merchandise. O’Hara said this summer the store plans to bring in Montana spray paints for graffiti artists as well as Copic markers, which are solvent-based, high-quality markers that boast vivid colors and airbrush attachments that appeal to comic artists and illustrator. The store is even looking at offering a class in graffiti art.