Nik Zainal Abidin draws from various sources of wayang kulit styles and stories and in varying forms through his own interpretations and those adapted and assimilated according to the host society's mores and peculiarities. Though his core sources are the Ramayana, whether it be the Malay adaptation or from the Thai version, he also includes the tales of the Mahabharata and the Hikayat Panji into his repertoire. He generalises the storyline as it is impossible to have one pictorial scene representing the whole gamut of the overly long epics. It's more a mish-mash of characters – whether they be the Ghatotkacha ‘Bald Pot' against the debonair Arjuna of the Pandawas in the Mahabharata or the Rama-Rawana battle of the Ramayana, or the Hikayat Panji (Wayang Purwa of Java) – picked up at certain stages of the story. Nik Zainal Abidin, who followed his dalang (puppeteer) father across Kelantan in wayang kulit performances when he was young, was arguably the first to adapt the wayang kulit myths and folklore into fine art. It's interesting that fellow artist Patrick Ng Kah Onn (1932-1989), in his thesis for the Hammersmith College of Art & Design in London, had classified Nik Zainal Abidin in the “primitive mould” together with Australia's Albert Namatjira and France's La Dounier Rousseau. His repertoire also included tales from the Mahabharata and the Hikayat Panji. He worked as a set designer for RTM in the 1960s until his retirement in 1988. He is known for his design of the Kunci Ibu Kota, the cokmar (royal mace) and the royal throne for the Yang di-Pertuan Agong in 1960. And who could forget his mosaic glass mural done in 1962 for the West Wing of Muzium Negara. He was a member of the Wednesday Art Group and showed promise when he won the 1st Prize in the Joy of Living exhibition in 1964. In 1970, he was selected for a German cultural tour and took part in the World Expo in Osaka, Japan.