\u201cI wasn\u2019t a super social child. I used to sit and paint water lilies and paint them day in and day out.\u201d<\/p>\n
It seems that vivid childhood memory from her years at kindergarten set Beth Kay on a path that was always going to be a creative one \u2013 opening her first solo exhibition at Mount Gambier\u2019s Little Blue Wren Art & Gifts and running until June 23.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy earliest memory is doing art at kindy – I never played with the LEGO and didn\u2019t go outside that much either,\u201d she said. \u201cI actually still have one of those early water lily paintings \u2013 I found it in a box just the other day.\u201d<\/p>\n
And while the kindy paintings are the earliest memory, Beth grew up in an environment rich in creativity. \u201cMy dad is creative \u2013 he is a graphic designer \u2013 and I did competitive dancing and was musical, I was just always had creativity around me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Safe to say when Beth hit Year 8 at school and art became an elective subject you could study as an option full time \u2013 she was first in line.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a chance for me to really explore art a bit more,\u201d she said. Beth attended St Martins Lutheran College until Year 7, spent Years 8-10 at Grant High School and then relocated to Melbourne when the family made the move.<\/p>\n
Throughout those school years, her passion for art only grew, and she went on to study a Bachelor of Fine Arts at RMIT with plans to then complete a Masters and go on to be a teacher.<\/p>\n
What was set to be chance to immerse herself in art in lecture theatres and studios alongside fellow students was soon stymied by the pandemic and 18 months of lockdowns.<\/p>\n
While her study continued \u2013 it was in isolation \u2013 and when she reconnected with her primary school crush Matthew, a return to her childhood home became priority one.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe reconnected over the internet while I was in lockdown and we started dating long distance and after six months it just seemed like it was time to move back to Mount Gambier,\u201d Beth said.<\/p>\n
That was not just a life changing decision in her personal life but also her art practice. It was when her thoughts moved from teaching art to becoming an artist, in her own right.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy plan was never to be an artist \u2013 I just enjoyed it as a hobby,\u201d Beth said. \u201cThe plan was to be an art teacher and the reason I did the Fine Arts course before the Masters in Education was so the majority of my study would be focussed on art and the creative side of things.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd it was in my final year of my Bachelor of Fine Arts that I started to realise I wasn\u2019t really sure that (teaching) was what I wanted to do but I also thought I was so far into the plan already.\u201d<\/p>\n
But she changed tack and despite putting her artistic energies into her own practice rather than a classroom, she does teach art lessons and is about to embark on teaching a drawing fundamentals course.<\/p>\n
The fact she has already secured an opportunity to unveil her first solo exhibition has vindicated that leap of faith and it came about almost accidentally.<\/p>\n
\u201cA friend suggested I go and have a look at the Little Blue Wren Gallery and that\u2019s all I was doing there at the time but Tabatha (co-owner) and I got chatting and before I knew it we were arranging an exhibition,\u201d Beth said.<\/p>\n
That exhibition \u2013 titled The Feminine Art of Mark Making \u2013 could also be classed as a collaboration, or at least, partly inspired by her husband Matthew. It is a creative collision of fine art and firearms, the collection reimagines the traditional accuracy target as vibrant geometry and uses rifles to create powerful marks through the canvas.<\/p>\n
Basically Beth has merged her passion for art with one of her new passions \u2013 shooting \u2013 a hobby she has taken up alongside Matthew. \u201cIt (shooting) was one of his hobbies and he took me shooting and as shooting became a bit more of a focus for me I started thinking of ways to marry the two,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
That saw her starting to almost doodle on the completed targets, which evolved to colouring and then she started designing her own targets with geometric shapes and suddenly she was inspired to create a new body of work.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was just a fun experiment and was never intended to be anything but as I continued to explore, it did become something and here we are with an exhibition.\u201d<\/p>\n
At first glance this abstract offering is a giant leap for the little water lily painting girl who, unsurprisingly became a young artist fascinated with painting landscapes.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would take photos every time we went out,\u201d Beth said. \u201cMount Gambier has so much more green than Melbourne. We did live near the Bay in Melbourne with beautiful views but coming down here and having so much greenery and trees was amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Beth has continued to evolve as an artist though, through both her studies and life.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou learn that making art is about what\u2019s happening or how you are feeling,\u201d she said. \u201cI did study abstractism through university and had been encouraged to always push things further.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of her university assignments that shaped her philosophy going forward was where she had to draw the same item 50 times.<\/p>\n
\u201cI always liked colour and contrast, even in portraits, and breaking it down as to the shapes involved and how the light falls on those shapes,\u201d Beth said.<\/p>\n
It saw her develop a style where she was creating two and sometimes three toned portraits where they still looked like a person.<\/p>\n
That style saw her exploring geometric shapes more fully and somewhat ironically, after telling her father she had no interest in his field \u2013 graphic design \u2013 she had a strong design component to her work and now, her art practice.<\/p>\n
After continually creating art over her three years of study and the work for her Little Blue Wren exhibition, Beth has just enjoyed a less frenetic six months in the creative space.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe rest time is a big part of creativity \u2013 you can\u2019t practise art all the time,\u201d she said. \u201cI think I needed the that time, that break from it and now I can come back fresh.\u201d<\/p>\n
That has seen her packing her small notebook with her again so she can draw, sketch or jot down ideas as she is out and about.<\/p>\n
Beth\u2019s first ever exhibition was the group exhibition with her graduating class which was an unusual experience because it weas the first time many of the students had met face to face, given their course ran through the pandemic and lockdowns.<\/p>\n
Now she has added to that experience with this solo offering. \u201cBoth have been very different experience, which has been awesome,\u201d Beth said. \u201cIt has been a chance to learn about what it takes behind the scenes, on the admin side of things to put on an exhibition and I know each place I exhibit will be a different experience and that will be exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n
Next on the agenda in terms of exhibitions is an opportunity for Beth at The Riddoch Arts and Cultural Centre in the middle of next year \u2013 an opportunity she applied for at the end of last year as it was the only gallery she knew in Mount Gambier and she wanted a chance to showcase her work.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will be new work \u2013 I think it will be different from my current exhibition but at this stage I don\u2019t know what it will be.\u201d<\/p>\n
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