Raphael Scott Ahbeng, or popularly known as RSA, is a tough cookie. At 76, he keeps up an active painting regime despite bouts of illness. He is often spoken in the vein of fellow Sarawakian Tsai Horng Chung, though Yong Mun Sen was also Sarawak-born but spent the rest of his life in West Malaysia. The fishy title, ‘Friends’ in this work, is self-explanatory though any negative notion implied is not evident. It boils down to a play of forms, shapes and colours. RSA, a Bidayuh who resides in Bau, took up an Art and Photography course at the Bath Academy of Art in Britain from 1964-67 and a drama course in London in 1973. He had worked as a broadcaster, teacher, newspaper cartoonist before concentrating fulltime in art in 1990. He won 1st Prize at theSarawk Shell Open competition in 1959, 1982 and 1983; and 3rd Prize in the Natural Malaysia art competition in Kuala Lumpur in 1991.