Art Supply Store Near Me in Hillview: Straits Art Co.

Connoisseurs and master painters looking for an art supply store near me steeped in Singapore's creative history make the journey to 13 Chu Lin Road, where Straits Art Company operates from a quiet shophouse in the Hillview residential enclave. Founded in 1947 by early cultural pioneer Mr. Lim Meng Wah, Straits Art Company is Singapore's oldest surviving fine art supply company. During the post-war decades, the original shophouse along North Bridge Road served as the intellectual gathering spot for Singapore's founding Nanyang Style artists, including legendary pioneers Chen Chong Swee, Liu Kang, Cheong Soo Pieng, and Georgette Chen, who relied on the store for imported European pigments and traditional Chinese ink materials.

Oil painters regard Straits Art Company as an irreplaceable national treasure because of its direct imports from historic European paint houses. A 40ml tube of Old Holland Classic Oil Colour costs S$32.00, hand-ground using traditional stone rollers and cold-pressed linseed oil according to recipes dating back to the Dutch Golden Age in 1664. The shelves also feature Michael Harding artists' oil colour 40ml tubes priced at S$22.50, prized by portraitists for their silky handling, high tinting strength, and freedom from driers or adulterants.

For restorers, conservators, and icon painters, the shop stocks genuine dry mineral pigments, egg tempera mediums, Stand oil, Venice turpentine, dammar varnish crystals, and French chalk. Staff possess deep technical knowledge regarding paint film drying, fat-over-lean rules, and optical glazing techniques passed down through generations of family stewardship.

Watercolourists traveling to Straits Art Company can acquire top-tier pans and hand-crafted brushes from Germany and England. An individual half pan of Schmincke Horadam artists' watercolour costs S$14.50, formulated with four-times poured liquid pigment that dissolves instantly upon touching a wet brush. The counter cases showcase complete wooden boxed sets alongside Daniel Smith extra fine watercolours and Winsor & Newton professional tubes.

Brush craftsmanship at Straits Art Company represents the pinnacle of natural hair manufacture. A Da Vinci Maestro Kolinsky red sable series 10 round brush size 3 costs S$36.00, crafted in Germany from selected Siberian Tobolsky winter male sable hair that forms a needle-sharp point and offers unmatched spring. You will also find unbleached Chungking bristle filberts, French squirrel wash mops, and traditional goat hair hake brushes.

At Straits Art Company, surface preparation is treated as a foundational artistic discipline rather than an afterthought. The shophouse stocks premium unprimed and oil-primed Belgian linen rolls from Claessens, renowned worldwide for their tight thread density, natural flax resilience, and glass-smooth surface that supports fine glaze transitions. The proprietors carry imported mortise-and-tenon wooden stretcher bars that expand with wooden corner keys, allowing canvases to remain drum-tight across Singapore's humid equatorial climate.

For artists preparing their own grounds, the store supplies traditional gesso ingredients including Bologna chalk, whiting, rabbit skin glue granules, and zinc white oil grounds. The staff are always happy to discuss historical glazing techniques, explaining how seventeenth-century Venetian masters built up transparent glazes over warm imprimatura layers, or how modern conservators stabilize vintage oil paintings against tropical mold and humidity fluctuations.

Painters can also order custom-stretched linen canvases tailored to precise centimetre specifications. Each stretcher frame is assembled with bevelled interior edges to prevent unsightly ghost lines from appearing along the canvas face during vigorous brushwork.

Honoring its founding heritage, Straits Art Company preserves an outstanding collection of traditional Chinese calligraphy and ink painting materials. A pack of 50 sheets of handmade traditional raw Xuan paper costs S$45.00, produced from natural wingceltis bark and rice straw in Jingxian, Anhui province, providing sensitive ink absorption and tonal gradation for expressive literati ink landscapes. Sized alum Xuan paper, antique gold-flecked scrolls, and raw silk mounted rolls are also available.

The calligraphy station features solid pine soot and oil soot inksticks from Hu Kaiwen, heavy Duan stone inkstones, ceramic brush rests, and raw Qingtian and Shoushan seal stones. The owners can share historical anecdotes about how Singapore's early masters mixed Chinese ink techniques with Western post-impressionist color palettes.

The legacy of Straits Art Company is deeply entwined with the founding of the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts in 1938 and the evolution of Singapore's distinctive modern art heritage. In the mid-twentieth century, founding master Lim Meng Wah personally advised artists on which imported pigments would withstand Southeast Asia's tropical sunlight without fading, helping pioneers like Liu Kang and Chen Chong Swee create seminal masterpieces that now hang in the National Gallery Singapore.

Today, collectors and serious hobbyists visit Chu Lin Road not just to purchase supplies, but to immerse themselves in an authentic, unhurried fine art sanctuary. The store accepts phone inquiries and orders, maintaining a loyal clientele of veteran artists who have purchased their pigments from Straits Art Company for forty or fifty years. Cash, PayNow, and credit card payments are accepted, and parking is conveniently available directly along Chu Lin Road outside the shophouse.

Straits Art Company is located at 13 Chu Lin Road, Singapore 669904. The shop welcomes visitors Monday to Saturday from 9:30 am to 6:00 pm, and is closed on Sundays and public holidays. Hillview MRT station on the Downtown line is an eight-minute walk away, while bus services 176, 177, and 963 stop along nearby Upper Bukit Timah Road.

Visiting Straits Art Company is more like visiting an intimate fine art salon than a commercial store. Take your time to talk with the proprietors about your current painting projects, canvas preparations, or pigment queries. Combining your visit with a peaceful nature walk around the nearby Bukit Batok Nature Park or Dairy Farm Nature Reserve makes for a wonderfully restorative creative excursion.