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Brush Restaurant is one of the coolest scenes around
Think Design Magazine - Written by Michael Earle
Phuket harbours an eclectic group of artists and artisans. None more so than a boy from the Australian outback, artist, sculpture, kinetic artist and designer John Underwood, owner of Underwood Art Factory and Brush Restaurant and Lounge on Kalim Beach.
John's dream of establishing Brush as a centre for artists of every hue-painters, sculptors, designers, writers et al-came to life in August with Movie Month, a festival of movie making and celebration featuring three other Phuket creative "geniuses": John's son Zachary; long time resident and Hollywood production designer Jim Newport and another Hollywood veteran, film maker Ed Vaughan.
Throughout Movie Month Zachary Underwood and some friends used the restaurant as a living movie set to produce their masterpiece, "Still Hungover: The Remake," a spoof of the successful "Hangover 2," made in Bangkok and doing gangbusters at the movies. Members of the public were invited to don wigs and costumes to be extras in the movie, which was to be shown in full on 27 August...
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Brush Restaurant is out to create a Kinetic Kalim
Phuket Observer - June 16th, 2011
Phuket's art scene is often described as vibrant, but the exhibits at Brush Restaurant & Lounge in Kalim this month actually do vibrate - they also twist, twirl, roll and rotate.
The Kalim Kinetic Art Fair is the brainchild of Brush's owners, the family Underwood, and has the aim of drawing together young local artists and designers to create art that moves – both emotionally and literally.
A month in the making, the father-son team of John and Zac Underwood opened up the doors of the Underwood Art Factory to help aspiring "Kineticians" create their mobile masterpieces. All the best entries to the project will be on show at the closing party at Brush Restaurant on 25 June, including two pieces by the Underwoods; a wave sculpture John worked on with Zac, and a perpetual motion machine.
"Kinetic art is interactive, not-so-mainstream, alternative art," Zac explains. "It doesn't have a definition, which is why it's so flexible. But it excites the imagination, incites curiosity."
Bringing new artists to this dynamic medium was only the first part of the plan, John hopes that the Art Fair will become an annual attraction for Kalim – the quiet beach just to the north of big, bright, brash Patong.
"My family is very attached to Kalim," John says. "We think Kalim needs something that sets it apart – an ideal that allows people to come here and enjoy it year after year. So I'm hoping [the Kinetic Art Fair] is something we can do in June every year"
Brush was once, in fact, the Underwoods' home. After the 2004 tsunami, John rebuilt it as a restaurant, incorporating some of the visual wildness that has become his trademark.
Underwood's signature style incorporates materials at their most elemental level. Rust is relished and the abandoned is brought back to serve an active role in the imagination...
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Brushing up on ox cheek
The Phuket News - Friday, 11th Mar 2011
As another tranquil golden sunset settled over the placid sea at Kalim Beach, a perk of working with this brand new newspaper was revealing itself.Having been invited by the new restaurant Brush to enjoy a meal, this food reviewer was seated near the front of the open restaurant to see the sun set on the other side of the beach road.
There was a good wine list to choose from but I was happy with a cold beer, served by a pretty waitress dressed in the flowing virgin-white robe of a Greek goddess. The outfit suited the white jagged brick wall of the open funnel-shaped restaurant, designed by owner John Underwood, a long-time resident, sculptor and interior designer from Australia. I could have been in a taverna looking out onto the Aegean, not the Andaman.
The quiet-spoken, very relaxed English chef, Marty Bower, came to sit down for a chat. He has been here since December, flying in from Melbourne, and he was busy preparing for the opening of the restaurant on March 5.
To wet the appetite, the menu has a fine choice of many tapas dishes: a selection of maki rolls and tempura; cold selection such as steamed crab meat salad; trio of smoked fish, crostini wakame seaweed and caper berries; and hot selections such as herb-crusted scallops; and soy Szechuan pepper-marinated tuna.
Starters proper are equally mouth-watering – cured coral fish and tian of local crab with gazpacho and basil oil.
For the main course, Chef Bower recommended the roast rack of lamb or braised ox cheek, or there is asparagus and green pea risotto for vegetarians. There is also a selection of steaks from the grill...
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Phuket's Brush with Fame: Every Picture Tells a Story
PhuketWan, Sunday, March 6, 2011
Just as another glorious sunset painted the sky and sea with vivid hues across Kalim Bay last evening, a canvas filled with glamor and sizzle started to form across the road in Phuket's latest chic dining spot - Brush by John Underwood.
Housed in the two-level, open-front industrial style building that was formerly the Chinese restaurant Hung Fat's (and before that, Mr Underwood's home before the 2004 tsunami gave it an early spring cleaning), the re-imagined bistro offered guests a sampling of treats from salmon rolls to sticky-sweet brownies, while roving waitresses with trays of sherry, champagne and colorful cocktails were quickly swamped by the thirsty crowd...
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Brush Restaurant To Paint New Art Scene On Phuket
Phuket Observer, February 15th, 2011 by Alastair Carthew
John Underwood, an understated, almost 60 Australian, has a vision for Phuket's art scene: create a centre of excellence where artists of every hue can gather and display their works.
That place is Brush, Underwood's new restaurant on Kalim Beach with fantastic sunset views, a eclectic tapas menu from an award winning chef and with the potential to become the focal point for the Phuket artist community.
Sculpture, painting and other forms of conventicle art are on the "menu" at Brush. But Underwood also has other, more creative ideas.
"Why not do an exhibition of those crazy mudflaps on Thai trucks with pictures of movies stars, such as Silvester Stallone? Or why not tattoos? They are now universally accepted all over the world by everyone. Why not an exhibition of the best tattoos on Phuket?"
Such creativity is expected from John Underwood by those who know him.
After 19 years on Phuket he has developed a reputation for producing works of art out of every conceivable type of material, much of it recycled, at his Underwood factory on Phuket's by-pass road.
He has worked with most of the large hotels on Phuket, including doing the design for Indigo Pearl, a northern island resort noted for its unusual look and feel.
Brush is his latest project, very much aimed at bringing the island's highly varied artist community to the public–and together.
The restaurant will stage exhibitions, fashion shows, kinetic art [moving art] shows. In fact, anything that has an artistic bent to it, Underwood is willing to give it a go...
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