Luxury Gifts Ideas for Artists: When Money's No Object

If you're a Van Gogh fan, this must surely be the ultimate. It contains all his letters, illustrated with photos of the paintings he refers to (whether by himself or someone else) and actual size photos of the sketches he included in various letters. Everything's cross-referenced and annotated too.

Fabriano Artistico is a watercolor paper worthy of a quality Kolinsky sable brush. It's made from 100 percent cotton, is acid free, and double-sized for a great painting surface. The "Traditional White" is a slightly warmer white than the "Bright White".

Keep various bits and pieces organized and close to hand with an art caddy on wheels. There's plenty of space for jars, bottles, rags, brushes, and you can store your paint tubes in one of the drawers until you need to squeeze a bit more out. The top is ideal for resting a palette on, or could even be used as a palette.

A wooden box set of pastels is perfect for going plein-air painting, for taking pastels to a workshop, keeping them organized in your studio and simply as a beautiful form of storage! Unison pastels are considered by many pastel artists to be the ultimate in pastel and the price of a big wooden, boxed set of 144 Unisons is definitely in the luxury category. But, as with other brands of pastels, there are various sizes of box available that all make a lovely art gift. If your local art supplies stores doesn't have boxed set, ask if they can get one in as a special order.

Buy Direct: Unison, Rembrandt

A metal watercolor set rather than a plastic one feels like it's a serious commitment to paint, rather than a temporary arrangement. It'll last a lifetime too, because the individual colors (or pans) can be replaced as they're used up.

The art market still has a sentimental attachment to paintings done with oils (traditional oil paint that is, not water-based oils). So perhaps it's time the artist in your life gave oil paint a try? A good starter set has everything you'd need to set yourself up in style, except a canvas.

Kolinsky sable is the Ferrari of brushes, the ultimate hair for spring and paint-holding ability. Looked after carefully, a sable-hair brush will produce paintings for many years.

Keep the sun off yourself and your painting while you're working outdoors with this adjustable umbrella that clamps to your easel or table. As the umbrella fabric is white, it won't affect the colors you're seeing on your painting.

Designed to hold small painting panels and your essential painting supplies, a pochade makes it easy to get organized for painting outdoors. Depending on the style, it also facilitates bringing wet oil paintings back home again. You can either put it on a fold-up table (or balance it on a rock) or attach it to a tripod to work standing up.

Pens with colored ink are perfect for getting down ideas quickly, whether in a sketchbook or journal, and for planning compositions of paintings. The Faber-Castell Pitt range include pens with brush tips, ideal for painterly mark-making.