The Canvas

Portrait of a Dayak Lady

Artist: Yeh Chi Wei
Title: Portrait of a Dayak Lady
Accession Number: 1993-01348
Conservation carried out by: Mar / Lynn
Treatment Date: 04 Jan 2010 – 28 Jan 2010

Week 1

Today, I was assigned by Mar to start on the conservation of a portrait of the Dayak lady by Yeh Chi Wei, while Diana was given with the task of Angkor Wat. Diana and I are given semi-autonomous status to work on a painting from beginning to end and i guess this going to be challenging!

The painting arrived to the lab with pieces of facing paper stuck onto the surface. They were glued onto the paint flakes to secure the paint layer by methylcellulose. This is a temporary preventive measure to secure the paint flakes during transportation.

An examination under raking light reveals the uneven texture of the painting, the high impasto, as well as a huge bulge which will require some good flattening!! As usual, we did a physical examination of the painting, commonly known as a condition check. The overall condition is still pretty okay except for some signs of cupping, cracks, paint loss and flaking. There were also some areas of paint loss that revealed a different color underneath, which made me think that another painting may lie beneath the dayak lady. Unfortunately, IR could not give us any interesting finding on this because the paint was too thick

After a discussion with Mar, I realised this is not going to be that simple as I thought. We found a tear at a corner, a torn label at the back of the painting, and 40 yrs of accumulated dirt that needs some good cleaning…. I foresee a tough week ahead …

First and foremost, we have to deal with the most urgent matter – lifting paint and paint cracks. With cotton wool swabs damped with deionised water, the facing paper was removed easily. After Mar tested on the feasibility of using Isinglass solution (fish glue dissolve in water), I started the consolidation of the cracks.

CONSOLIDATION OF PAINT CRACKS:

The warm isinglass was applied over the cracks so that it flowed nicely underneath the lifting paint. The excess is wiped off using cotton wool. Heat is then applied and the paint is pressed down nicely into the painting.

Before

After

Sounds easy? But it is not, really!
Sometimes the concentration of Isinglass may not be strong enough to hold down high impasto paint and a more concentrated solution is needed. When too concentrated, however, the liquid becomes more viscous, making it harder to flow and seep into the cracks. This requires some playing around with the available tools. For those “hard-to-reach” areas, a syringe is used to inject the liquid. By adding a few drops of ethanol, the flow can be improved without affecting the concentration.

Week 2

After a day of consolidation work, we removed the gold frame and the tacking margin (sides of a painting) was revealed. To my horror, there are even more flakes, cracks, and the paint was even more brittle than those in the center. This also means more consolidation for me. A slightly different method this time due to the paint nature.
Consolidation….

….consolidation

And more consolidation………….

Paint pieces such as these were found at the tacking margin. They have already lost their ability to adhere to the canvas. I tried to save as many bits as I could, but they were just too small and many of their original location were unknown. Was fiddling with it for a few hours before my savior came…

“ It is no use spending too much time on saving these bits which have been displaced from their original location and we don’t know where they belong to any longer, and would eventually be covered up by the frame.” Mar replied with a straight face and a serious tone.

Her words marked the end of my consolidation work for this painting.

The fallen bits were then collected for further investigation.

Week 3

Not to forget the white bulge and the tear located at the top right corner – These two need flattening with humidification. Basically, the method uses indirect contact with moisture to soften the paint layer so that it can be flattened using glass weights.

The tear was fixed by Mar using Lascaux 498:

The tear happened to be located at an inconspicuous area beneath the stretcher. I had to shine some light for Mar while she applied the adhesive over the tear.

Have been doing consolidation for the past few days… It is time to give the painting and myself a break. So today we will take a look at the cross sections. There were some samples that were previously collected from the tacking margin. These samples were sliced, revealing a smooth cross section of many layers. They were fixed onto the glass slide with a resin and looked under the microscope of magnification 200x, 400x. These beautiful images reveal the different layers of paint, varnish, ground layer and even DIRT! Below is a collage of the images, AND NO IT IS NOT KUEH LAPIS!!!

It is always interesting to see an original label at the back of the painting, for it means a new piece of information about the painting or the artist.

Unfortunately, they do not always come in complete and the words are now illegible. So is there still a need to keep this torn label?

In conservation practice, we try to save everything we can about the artwork. Although we have no clue as to how that may link to the art at the moment, it is a part of documentation. To preserve the label, we first have to remove it from the painting.

The label was humidified to make it softer and easier to detach from painting.

With the help of Paula, the papers conservator, the paper bits were removed…
… and glued onto a piece of soft paper to secure each position. The label was then encapsulated in plastic sheets and attached to the back of the painting.

Week 4

Hardly ever any piece that enters our lab escapes from cleaning. We do all sorts of cleaning here using conservation grade materials, all of which are substantial in ensuring a clean painting. Dust should be removed from the painting wherever possible, which can attract moisture and therefore mould growth. Commonly known as surface cleaning, the front of the painting is cleaned using cotton wool swabs damped, in this case, with deionised water. There is always a need to think through on what to clean, how much cleaning is required and which method of cleaning to be used, which happens on a case to case basis. Usually, it is easy to differentiate between dirt and paint on cotton wool swabs.

This time, I did a brush vacuuming at the back of the painting, followed by gentle back scrubbing using a soft sponge.