Veteran artist Long Thien Shih began his artistic career sketching and painting landscapes at the age of 15, many featuring the fishing villages around Klang, Selangor. Dated 1965, The Farmer is one of those early works Long created when he was 19 years old. Long depicts a shirtless man in a conical hat and carrying a larger than life pickaxe with his back facing the viewer seen walking across a vast paddy field. The farmer works diligently, making an honest living. Long Thien Shih won a French government scholarship to study art in 1966 and was enrolled in the internationally renowned printmaking studio Atelier 17, founded by William Stanley Hayter, a prominent figure in British Surrealism and Abstract Expressionism. He presented a retrospective exhibition titled Man Of The Times at National Art Gallery, Kuala Lumpur in 2014. In 2018, he participated in a group exhibition titled The Art Of Printmaking: Lasting Impressions, which was held at Bank Negara Malaysia Museum and Art Gallery, Kuala Lumpur.