Raphael Scott AhBeng

Raphael Scott AhBeng was born in Singai, in the Bau district of Sarawak, on 13 December 1939 — the landscape the paintings in this section keep returning to.

He was educated in Singai and Bau, moved to Batu Lintang Government School in 1954 and to the Government Secondary School in Miri in 1958, and entered the Teachers College at Batu Lintang, Kuching, in 1960. He graduated as a trained art and English teacher in December 1961 and was posted to schools around Bau.

In 1964 a British Council scholarship took him to the Bath Academy of Art in Britain, on a course that took in photography and ceramics as well as painting, and he travelled widely in Europe — Germany, France, Spain and Italy. He returned to teach art and English at Green Road Secondary School in Kuching in 1967.

From 1972 his working life moved into broadcasting: the Broadcasting School, then a British Council bursary in 1973 to study English and drama at the British Drama League in London, then Radio Television Malaysia from 1975 as a programme organiser in its English department. He trained in television at IPTAR in Kuala Lumpur in 1979, and a Sarawak Government and British Council bursary took him to study broadcasting at the BBC in London in 1987. In January 1991 he started his own company, Beng Art and Communication, supplying work to businesses, offices and private homes across Malaysia and Singapore.

All these while I have been painting and drawing. My first experience with painting was 1949. Since then I never stopped!! My first one man art show was in 1954.