Catching the tropical flow
PHUKET: Another art dinner held by Think Design magazine is in progress at Brush. The waterfront at Kalim beach on Friday night (April 6) is brightly lit and busy with people sitting on the esplanade,
Norachai Thavisin
Wednesday 18 April 2012, 05:59PM
Inside the restaurant, around 20 art lovers are deep in conversation and enjoying their food and wine. Restaurant owner, sculptor and designer John Underwood relaxes along with his guests.
Think Design editors, Michael Earle and Tricia Miller, are chatting with Phuket artist Parn, who has brought some of his large canvases of oil and acrylic paintings to show at the restaurant.
As guests dine, one painting at a time is put on an easel, their bright daps of brush marks, describing the blood-red sea at sunset, abstracted flower shapes and figures.
Parn, who has been in Phuket for seven years after moving from Phattalung, begins each day at his studio at home tending to his rubber trees, harvesting latex that has run down to pool in small cups attached to the trunks.
Much of the morning is spent on that work. The afternoon then provides time for relaxation and painting, that continues well into the night.
The Siri Arts Studio at his home in Tambon Wichit is open to passers-by and visitors, and from there he sells his work, fetching about B20,000 each for some of the paintings.
Parn’s colourful dabs of paint, with some echoes of Australian Aboriginal art, serve the purpose of animating the surface of the paintings, in the same way that Van Gogh did with his masterpieces.
In Parn’s case, the vibrant colours and shapes appear to try to capture the quieter flow of a tropical night in Phuket.
