A team of faculty and students from the Oil Painting Technique and Material program at Tokyo University of the Arts, or Tokyo Geidai, visited Cambodia from February 26 to March 3, 2018, to hold paint-making and canvas-making workshops in collaboration with local art educators. These workshops were organized as part of the Inter-University Exchange Project funded by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, for which the university has been one of the designated institutions since 2016.

Workshop 1: Making paint out of materials found in everyday life (Siem Reap, February 28)

The first workshop was held at the Small Art School in Siem Reap, a major tourist destination known for its cultural and historical heritage such as Angkor Wat. The school is run by a Japanese woman and attended by children in the neighborhoods, most of whom are from unprivileged backgrounds. Participants of the workshop were those members of the school, and they engaged themselves in the whole process of making paint – from extracting pigment from soil or clay collected both in Cambodia and Japan to mixing it, after grinding, with egg yolk to help it adhere to the painting surface, such as paper and canvas. This is a traditional technique known as Egg Tempera that was commonly used in religious icon paintings in medieval Europe. With clay and eggs in their hands, the children seemed having fun making their own paints for the first time, using five senses. Also attending the workshop were two faculty members from the Royal University of Fine Arts of Cambodia, with which we have been collaborating under the Inter-University Exchange Project. They joined the participating children in making the paint and actually using it to paint, while enthusiastically asking questions about the materials used and steps to follow to the Tokyo Geidai team.

Workshop 2: Preparing a chalk-base on canvas (Phnom Penh, March 2)

The second workshop took place at the Royal University of Fine Arts (RUFA) in Phnom Penh, the capital city of Cambodia. After the demonstrations by the Tokyo Geidai team, each participant from RUFA tried making a painting base using water-soluble chalk. We were impressed by the eagerness shown by RUFA students, who were diligently documenting what they were learning by taking notes, photos, videos, etc. One student said in a disappointed voice that it was hard to get quality art tools and materials in Cambodia, but we hope that we were able to show to the participating students that an ideal ground for painting could be prepared with their own hands. There were moments where the participants had to wait for the chalk applied to the canvases to dry or wait for the tools they were sharing to become available. Utilizing such moments, students of the two countries started conversations with one another, showing pictures of their creative projects on their smartphones, which led to discussions on the concept or intention behind their art. Although short and brief, the workshop thus brought intense and productive collaboration between the two institutions.

Tokyo Geidai and RUFA have been working together not only in the area of Oil Painting Technique and Material, but also in other fields such as Sculpture and Lacquer Art. Through these collaborations, we would like to contribute to strengthening the bilateral relationship and promoting arts and culture for Japan and Cambodia, in partnership with RUFA as the foundation of our engagement in Cambodia.