This work comes from Khalil Ibrahim’s earliest brood of batiks honed from the house in Kota Baru of Yusoff Abdullah. What stunned many art enthusiasts was that Khalil opted to work on the traditional batik on his return in September 1966 after spending six years studying Art in England, where he had already shown great promise with his Abstracts, Nudes, Still-Lifes and Landscapes. It was the same batch from his The Last Supper period, he had innovated two facets in batik-painting – Religious Batiks, and producing a batik-portrait directly from a model. This work with the accent on the fishermen’s net with the beaded lines bears resemblance in action to another one on top-spinning, using the same palette. Frank Sullivan, writing in the Straits Times Annual in 1970, under the headline, The Batik Art Of Khalil Ibrahim (pages 54-59)…for now a new theme was dominating his mind – movement – especially as expressed by people in groups, Malaysia at work and play. This idea resulted in a second solo exhibition, a successful all-batik show in the December 1968. Khalil Ibrahim was educated at the St Martin’s School of Art and Design in London 1964 (National Diploma of Design, post-graduate, 1965) and turned fulltime in 1966. His first solo, of his batik and watercolours, was held at the Samat Art Gallery, Kuala Lumpur, in 1970. He was the first Malaysian artist to have exhibited in Indonesia, in 1970. His major exhibitions include Khalil Ibrahim: The Art Journey in Petaling Jaya (2015), and Khalil Ibrahim: A Continued Dialogue at Galeri Petronas in 2004. He is also the co-founder of Malaysian Watercolour Society. Henry Butcher Art Auctioneers dedicated its booth in Art Expo Malaysia 2018 paying tribute to Khalil Ibrahim.