Her Extraordinary Colours is an artist residency undertaken by Beth J Ross over three months in the summer of 2025.
The Her Extraordinary Colours art trail of flags is on show from Friday 12 September until Sunday 12 October.
Pick up a copy of the map and guide, or click here for a pdf version.
You can also follow the trail and access audio recordings of the stories behind each flag on the app, click here to access.
Celebrating the often untold stories of women from Berwick, Spittal, and Tweedmouth and developed through workshops with a group of local women, the project researched and explored the lives of historical figures connected to the area. From landladies and knitters to writers and midwives. These stories were transformed into abstract, geometric flags, representing both individual women and wider groups whose contributions shaped the town’s heritage.
The women highlighted include Mabel Philipson, the third woman elected to the UK Parliament, Ellen Ainslie, a munitions worker from Tweedmouth, Grace Griffin who was hanged in 1823, the Salmon Queens, herring girls and bondagers, who worked as farm labourers for very low or no pay.
With thanks to the Berwick Record Office, The King’s Own Scottish Borderers, English Heritage, Berwick Library, YHA Berwick and Berwick Visitor Centre for their help and support with research and hosting during this project, and to the people of Berwick for sharing their stories.
Beth J. Ross’s work explores memory, emotion, and place, capturing traces left by the environments she and others inhabit. Working with paint, drawing, light, photography, installation, and soft sculpture, she seeks to convey fleeting memories that resurface over time. Sometimes deeply personal, other times tied to echoes of the past in certain places, her work intuitively responds to these ‘ghosts’ that linger in our imaginations, our homes, and our cities.
Born in Liverpool, Beth J. Ross is now based in North Shields. After a career teaching across the UK, Europe, the Middle East, and the Far East, she pursued fine art in her forties. Her public commissions include works for Lumiere Durham, Refocus Stockton, and North of Tyne. From 2023 to 2024, she was joint artist-in-residence at Cresswell Pele Tower and Gardens. Her work has been exhibited widely in the UK and internationally.