Artist takes aim at the world of fine art by shooting her own paintings

When South Australian artist Beth Kay is getting work ready for an exhibition nowadays, she composes then renders all her work in batches.

“It allows me to have fun at each step of the process,” the Mount Gambier-based artist said.

Then she heads outside, sets up the painting, walks over to her gun, takes aim, and fires.

Then the artwork is finished.

Despite the abstract and sometimes brightly coloured designs, Kay says they still function as a target.

“There’s lots of extra fun to them in my opinion … but there’s still an uninterrupted circle that is the functional target of the piece,” she says.

“While there’s lots surrounding it and lots that makes it interesting to look at, I still wanted to have that functionality of it.”

Her collection, named The Feminine Art of Shooting, is currently being exhibited at the Riddoch Arts and Cultural Centre — her second exhibition in her home city.

Combining art and sport

While she was raised in the country, Kay, 22, got into the world of fine art studying at RMIT in Melbourne.

But a move back home during COVID-19 lockdowns helped shape her work.

“I was seeing my boyfriend, who’s now my husband, and he’s interested in shooting and invited me to come along,” she says.

“It was fascinating to me — it’s something I’d never been included in before so it was really cool to experience something new. 

Kay’s initial steps towards melding her art and the sport were borne more out of necessity.

“I don’t have a printer, but one night I wanted to go shooting with my husband and I was like, ‘I’ll just draw some, it’s circles on paper, right?'” she says.

“So I drew some circles on paper and I was like, ‘What if I drew them like this, or what if I did this instead?’ 

Work inspired varied reactions

When Kay let her experimentation with targets overlap with her fine art studies, it inspired some interesting responses from her tutors.

“Initially they were like, ‘Oh, but safety. Are you OK though?’ and I’d say it’s fine,” she says.

“A lot of the readings of my artwork when I brought it to my university were readings of violence or things like that, but it’s actually a very meditative sport.

“You have to be very calm when shooting to actually shoot well, which is one of the misconceptions, but it is understandable with a lot of the publicity and media around shooting.

“But in a regional area where it’s done safely and as a sport, it’s actually very controlled. 

“There are a couple of other people who do that, and they do a great job, but not the way that I’m doing it at the moment.”

Looking through a unique lens

While other artists do use guns for mark-making, Kay says her work was created through her personal lens.

“Obviously there’s been heaps of people who have been involved in the sport for a long time, including women, so I know this isn’t just about my femininity and my womanhood,” she says.

“It’s also about my creativity and my design background and all those coming together to meld it.

“I wouldn’t have been able to make this work if I hadn’t moved back to the South East. I wouldn’t have been exposed to it. 

“But I also wouldn’t have been able to do it if I hadn’t moved to Melbourne either. 

“If my life had changed in any way I wouldn’t have made it.”

More to explore

Kay’s exhibition opened last month, alongside works from Natalya Hughes and early 20th-century artist Clarice Beckett. 

“I have talked to a couple of people from the public [on opening night] … and that was super fun to just chat to people,” Kay says. 

“There were some people who themselves had done shooting and so they found the work really fascinating.”

After the exhibition ends on July 28, Kay plans to take a creative break but is not ruling out taking aim at her art again in the future.

“I’ve been doing this for about three years now on this one concept,” she says.

“Whether that will be what I do next or that will be what I do in like 20 years, I don’t know, but I do think there’s still more there.”