161 Southeast Asian oil paintings: supports and preparatory layers Nicole Tse and Robyn Sloggett ABSTRACT Oil painting practice emerged in Southeast Asia in the nineteenth century. Preliminary identification of artists’ supports and preparatory layers from the region illustrate that their adopted practices reflect ‘Western’ tech- niques. However they are not direct reproductions. Contributing factors such as the availability of local materials, and the artist’s training and material conditions aided in the development of a cultural practice representative of its geographic location. This paper draws upon a current research project, with partners from cultural institutions in Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, Singapore and the University of Melbourne, which has examined 208 oil paintings from the period c.1900 to the 1950s. KEYWORDS canvas paintings, tropical climates, Southeast Asia, materials, techniques Introduction Studies of the transference of cultural practice have, in the main, focused on the interest generated in Europe by particular objects, or cross-cultural influences, often framed as the ‘exotic’. Recent scholarship (Madeline and Martin 2006) is exploring the dialogue around such inter- actions. Conservation studies of Western artists’ use of materials and techniques have extended our understand- ing of art practice but predominantly within the con- fines of European art. Writers such as Flores (1998) and Poshyananda (1992) have provided seminal accounts of the history of Western-informed art practice in Southeast Asia. Nevertheless few material or technical studies focus on art practice in Southeast Asia. Such studies serve to broaden and contextualise discussions of artists’ practice. This paper is the result of recent research that aims to explore artistic practice and the choice of materials in Southeast Asia, involving the use of European artists’ materials. The practice of painting on stretched canvas in Southeast Asia reflects the development of colonisation in the region. Early extant examples in the Philippines date from the early 1800s (Fig.1), in Thailand from 1856, in the City of Singapore (Fig. 2) 1 and Malaya (Fig. 3) 2 from the nineteenth century. Today there are vast collections of historic canvas paintings in public and private owner- ship. The painting materials and techniques now used in Southeast Asian art were originally developed for temper- ate conditions. This paper provides a preliminary study identifying the materials and techniques of artists’ sup- ports and preparatory layers of oil paintings from collec- tions in Malaya, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. It seeks to determine whether the adopted materials and techniques reflect their origin of practice, being European, or incorporate practices relating to geographic location. This study was undertaken as a three-year joint project between the National Art Gallery of Malaysia (Balai Seni Lukis Negara), the J.B. Vargas Museum at the University of the Philippines (UP), the Heritage Conservation Centre in Singapore, the National Gallery in Bangkok and the Centre for Cultural Materials Conservation (CCMC) at the University of Melbourne in Australia. It focused on a survey examination of canvas paintings with some spe- cific materials analysis when possible. Results were also reviewed in the context of the supply of artists’ materi- als and art training opportunities, proposing that they provided the conditions for the transfer of ‘Western’ oil painting practice. Conclusions outlined in this paper pertain to the range of materials and techniques available for assessment, and are made within these parameters and the limitations of the techniques employed.