Matthew Kentmann:: Flinders Street Gallery

Big news around our house tonight?

Opening at the Flinders Street Gallery is Matthew Kentmann's new show. He has created a beautiful, dream-like collection of paintings inspired by the Australian coastline. 

He's also my husband.

Flinders Street Gallery
61 Flinders Street
Surry Hills

Exhibition is open from 9th - 19th April.

Please come and say hi if you're around and love art! 

So Long, Farewell: Weekend

What a whopper weekend!

It started with Tiny's preschool fete on Friday evening for three hours of action, and ended with the four of us on the sofa watching Toy Story, Matt and I trying to squeeze in some zzzz's.

Saturday morning we dropped in to check out Mr Jason Grant's new collab with Murobond paints. The beautiful new palette is called 'Road Trip' and was a pretty apt name, because after spending some time there perusing the Maker's Market, we drove down to Bowral for Matt's exhibition opening.  (Smalls above pictured out the front of Murobond - drop dead cute set up).

After mingling for almost three solid hours, we had a picnic in a nearby park - which was spectacular despite all the dead tulips, and let the smalls free-range for a few hours.

We left Bowral on a high, perhaps incubating more of a desire to flee the big smoke for a simpler, slower way of life.

I could totes get with that.

Heading South

Many of you may know that my husband, Matthew Kentmann, is an artist.

He's holding his fourth solo show on Saturday 5th November.

We'd be ever so chuffed if you'd care to join us:

loft gallery
5 Banyette Street
Bowral
Saturday 5th November
3pm

Daytrippers are absolutely welcome.

And This Is The Day I Catch Up

I've had the Doctor home all week sick with a cold and fever. I'm sick with a cold and fever. I'm sick of being sick. And when we've been going out people have said "Oh have you lost your voice?" Yeah no I always talk like a teenage boy whose voice is breaking.

Earlier in the week I asked a car wash man how much to wash our car. Apparently $180. I'd pay that if Jessica Simpson washed it wearing her Daisy Dukes, but not when the car park is in our local shopping centre and about 200 ninjas descend on the car for a thorough wash. Who pays $180? Not me. I'll get my own Turtle Wax and wash the darn thing myself. In Daisy Dukes.

Matt's been painting. I've been unpacking what seems to be a mass of neverending boxes. The only thing worse than packing is unpacking. Especially unpacking those boxes I packed towards the end of packing when I was completely over packing and literally just chucked everything in there. Does everyone do that sort of special packing or is that just me?

Oh and that illo up there is by my charming husband of me.

Anyway. Weekend. What are your plans?

What's Your Avatar?

It's a tough day when you:

a) have watched Avatar seven times, back to back, with no breaks

b) realise you are probably the world's biggest, and yet, smallest James Cameron fan

c) decide to dedicate your life to being blue

Just to clarify, no one in our house has seen Avatar, let alone Tiny.

Crafting with the Smalls

Today at PMM we've been keeping busy by getting our hands dirty. We were going to come at you and talk kiddie craft, and yet - it would seem highly hypocritical given that a certain someone started eating the freshly made playdough. And not one to be put off by a high salt content, she then went on to taste test the red watercolour paint.

Therefore our crafty content of the day resulted in me trying to get as much of the paint out of a certain someone's mouth without a) being bitten and b) causing a certain someone to gag and thus vomit. And then one did what one could only be expected to do in such a situation, one called the Poisons Information Line just to be certain that a certain someone was not going to sprout an additional head or start talking in tongues (when a certain someone's tongue was already bright red due to a certain someone's desire to digest some red pigments).

And then I spoke to Matt and mentioned the incident whereby a certain someone ate a certain paint product to which he replied, 'well I wouldn't eat it', and I replied 'yes, well you're not 20 months old, are you?'

So it is that our kiddie craft went wayward, the Doctor curled up on the couch with a suspected ear infection, and a certain someone whisked off to downtown lunch-ville and then to bed to sleep off any red pigment related craziness.

And, well you may wonder why in tarnation one PMM would have this image on her blog? I wonder the same, but in keeping with craziness and paint pigments, I present this. And you can click through here to see more Dogue than Vogue images.

Passion Killers

image via

My husband has a pair of brown socks. But they're not a rich chocolate-y brown. They're an ugly, brown. They make his feet look like a dead person's feet. Like a dead person who's walked 5kms to get to their grave. They are - to be frank - bonafide passion killers.

I've asked him if anything in my wardrobe could be classified as 'passion killing' and his response was my ugg boots. Or as the Doctor calls them, my 'ugg-ly' boots. And he means no pun either.

However I think Matt will find that they're not really part of my wardrobe. They're just part of my strictly at-home-apparel. I would never wear them out (except last week when I went to the library in them because it was so darn cold and my toes would have snapped off without them). So that cancels that out then and that means that my wardrobe is pretty darn perfect. Just like me.

What's a passion killer for you? Clearly, mine is 'dead person brown' socks. (By the way - if Dulux wants to use that as a new name for a brown - please do, I'll take the royalty cheques, I'm sure there are a lot of people wanting to paint their house dead person brown).

Want more passion killing inspiration? Click here.

Colours

I'm feeling a little under the weather. Sore throat. Head achey. Congested. My body feels... Oinky. But we're not here to talk about me. Are we?

So while I'm sitting here ironing the Mt Everest of ironing that's been collecting - and spilling over the basket, the Doctor is madly painting with his new watercolours.

He's making loads of paintings. He's prolific like Picasso. I try and hang up most his art works, but we're rapidly running out of walls. I've even dedicated a certain corner to being the Doctor's art gallery. It's full and we'll need a few sales before we can hang the next show.

The image above is a wiggly sea worm. POA.

As for Tiny, well. These days she's performing her own stunts. Won't walk. Will climb. What a massive punkrat. Yesterday I found her scaling the small ladder in her bedroom (excuse the mess - again - this time she created it herself - she's more into installations than paintings).

We're in a difficult limbo with Miss Tiny. She's decided not to go for two sleeps, which is what I call - a massive bummer. She gets herself ridiculously tired by the end of the day, in a filthy mood and consequently head butts the floor*.

If you don't have any children or would like to have another, now's the perfect time to add to start your collection. POA.

* Told you she did her own stunts.

Speeding Into Christmas: Making Paper

I did try and post this yesterday but my connection went haywire.

Take two.

I'm into making my own paper. Well not entirely. I bought a roll of brown paper at the newsagent. I painted it with speed stripes in aqua. They're wonky in a wholesome John Olsen sort of way. Rothko might even be proud.

So now I'm wrapping like a maniac to get everything posted to Perth on time.

However, on the subject of (w)rapping. Did anyone catch 'Aussie Battlers' last night on ABC? It was great. Modern day poets. I've been practising my own:

'Some days your breath smells so bad

They can smell it all the way over in Baghdad'

What do you think? For reals. My MC name could be PottyMouthMama. Battling in an amphitheatre near you.

Kiddie Craft: Dude, Where's My Car?

A couple of weeks ago on a beautiful Sunday afternoon The Doctor started painting a box. Not just an ordinary box. A car-box.

While we were soaking up all that Springtime goodness, The Doctor painted like a crazy man-child.

The end results were this totally awesome car. We pimped his ride with the following accessories:

- rear vision mirror fashioned from foil and pipe cleaner for maximum flexibility

- steering wheel on a pipe cleaner to allow for power steering

- tail lights - patty cake pans

- head lights - tin pie cases

- an exhaust - a toilet roll

- mag wheels - created from coloured in newspaper circles
- windscreen wipers - pipe cleaners and cardboard

But I've just realised the little dude has been driving around for the last few weeks with no number plates. Sheesh! Lucky I realised before he got pulled over by the kiddie-craft police.

So, We're Renovating

I think I may have neglected to mention that we bought a house. A three storey home with a rooftop terrace. Very chic. So exciting. It's positively darling - a real renovator's delight.

We've madly started painting over the weekend. It's strenuous stuff. Particularly with a three and a half year old wanting to be involved. Nevertheless, we've done most of the first lick of paint. Though the previous owners had something strange going on with red squares painted on three of the rooms. Weird. Obviously we're painting those out.

inspiration for the dining room - can't remember where i found this - but the yellow talks to me people - loudly!

The vision is bright, baby! The kids room is going to be extra special, a hammock for reading in, bunk beds, hand painted feature wall. The main bedroom is set to feature some Florence Broadhurst. The rooftop terrace will be fab perfect for entertaining those hordes of guests, and the kitchen, well, I'll leave that a little surprise. It's going to be so darn hot, and I am so darn excited it hurts. I'll ask my upholsterer brother-in-law to whip up some Designer Guild couches, ottomans in fuschia, oh man, this is so exciting I don't know how I've contained myself. The bathroom is dreamy, a claw foot bath, fab tiling, sheesh, I have butterflies just thinking about it.

There's so much inspiration everywhere, but we've decided to be bold. Dream big. Think bright. Jewel tones. Graphic. You get the picture, right?

Oh yeah. Just one more thing. Did I mention it's a dollhouse? Oh yeah, well. Gotta start somewhere, don't you?

Kiddie Craft:: Spring-time Butterflies

I know you already know how to make these. I'm safely assuming this because everyone at some stage in their childhood has made these deliciously easy, and utterly satisfying butterflies. Yesterday we spent the good part of an hour squishing them out to discover new breeds of the pretties.

All you need:

- paint (non-toxic)

- spoons so the little one can dollop on big fat, shiny globs of paint

- lotsa lotsa paper

- fingers for squishing out the butterflies

I trust you don't need instructions. Wing it. Pun absolutely and definitely intended. If you do need instructions, email me. I'll craft some up for you. Boom! Boom! Pun really ridiculously intended again. Sorry. Tough crowd tonight.

An Update

My husband has been chastising me, though I know he'd vigorously deny it if you asked. Lucky he's a little lax when it comes to reading my blog, otherwise I'd be in big trouble for telling you.

You see apparently here at PottyMouthMama HQ I've neglected to update the status of his painting, and have left you, dear reader, hanging. You're probably sitting at home, drumming your fingers on the table, comfort eating, -re-watching re-runs of The Golden Girls and calling people you don't really want to talk to, all because you've been wondering, what ever happened to...

So here it is. The finished painting. I love it. It hangs beside my bed and I love waking up to see my first newborn - swaddled up, jaundiced, puffy head from two hours of pushing, ah yes, that's exactly as I remember my little love bug.

Have I mentioned my husband is an artist, first and foremost, but currently he's masquerading as some sort of crazed office worker at an insurance company..? Oh the things you do to bring home the bacon.

He's been hung in the Dobell at the Art Gallery of NSW, has had a number of exhibitions, and he's hopefully working towards a new show soon.. Watch this space (because apparently I am doing his PR too).

Which brings me to tell you that the Dobell is currently on at AGNSW. For anyone that doesn't know, it's Australia's most prestigious drawing prize, and usually amasses a number of wonderful works. If you're in the city and want something to do, check it out.

Egg Yolk Sunshine Scrambled Egg Lemon Buttercup Yellow

Whichever way you look at it, yellow just can't help but be cheerful.

I woke this morning and knew I needed to do something with yellow. Something glossy. Something bold.

Yellow is:

- happy, flirty days

- a hand printed skirt

- sunlight flooding in dusty windows

- a bunch of hastily picked jonquils, marigolds and daffodils

- the smell of butter melting

- fresh popped popcorn

- an over-sized vintage mixing bowl

- Van Gogh

- a little bit old-fashioned, but completely modern

Whipping Boy

My husband is an artist. Last night he started work on this painting of our son as a wee babe. It's a work-in-progress, but already I love it, and have thought of the perfect spot to hang on our wall (just don't tell him that).