About Us

My name is John Hannah, and I am the founder of Hannah’s Art Supplies. Opening this store has been a big move for me – the kind of complete lifestyle change that I’ve always admired in others… from a safe distance.  I feel a bit like the guy who says “hey, let’s go sky-diving”, and now I’m sitting on the edge ten thousand feet up muttering that phrase of new sky-divers everywhere – “I should have thought this through”.

I’ve been working in higher education for about twenty-five years, mostly in student academic support services. I loved that work and the people I did it with, but it felt like the time had come for a change. So, in the Spring of 2026, I left that behind to pursue this new thing. 

I love art. And the impulse to create. I’m exploring this myself, through painting. And I’ve learned that the making of things involves a very important relationship with the materials of making – a saw,  a frying pan, a lump of clay, an anvil, a garden bed, a guitar pick, a piece of stretched canvas, a glob of paint, a brush. These tools don’t merely enable the creative process, they shape it, constrain it, inspire it. The artist is entangled with the materials of their art. That’s interesting to me.

I also want to spend my time with people who are making things or thinking about making things. Running a shop that helps equip them with the tools of their trade seems a good way to participate in that. And doing it in Warkworth, the place my partner Tesni and I have recently made home – even better.

I want this shop to be the kind of place I’d like to go to myself – friendly, unpretentious and helpful.  And, I’d also like to draw upon my experience as an educator to make this a place of learning; not an art-school, but a room to practice and create in the company of others.

So, whether you’re building a serious painting practice, starting a sketchbook for the first time, helping your child with a school project, or rediscovering art after years away, I hope you’ll find something here that will help with that.

And I’m looking forward to meeting my fellow sky-divers.