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Meet Beth Ross.
Beth Ross is a contemporary visual artist whose work delves into the complexities of memory, place, and emotion, often through the lens of her personal experiences.
In our interview, we explore her work and I created Beth's fantasy cultural year from the answers to 10 easy questions. Expect laughs, anecdotes and conversational detours.
Currently based in the North East of England, her artistic journey has been deeply influenced by her childhood, marked by constant movement across nine houses in three different countries—England, West Germany, and Kuwait—and three counties within the UK.
These early experiences, coupled with her time as a third culture kid in the Middle East, have left indelible marks on her practice.
The vivid colours, patterns, and textures of her past travels and the contrasting landscapes of ancient and modern architecture in Kuwait have become a recurring theme in her work.
She continues to explore and reinterpret these memories through her art.
After a successful 18-year teaching career that took her to Singapore, Cork, Vienna, Norwich, Cambridge, and Durham, Beth completed her Fine Art degree in 2014. Her early works were shaped by the limitations of creating art in a home without a dedicated studio, relying on her photography skills as a means to quickly and efficiently explore her ideas.
These constraints led her to develop a series-based approach to her work, categorising and expanding on themes as a way to delve deeper into her subject matter. During this time, she began experimenting with soft sculpture and mixed media, creating memory dolls, a coat made from the skins of cuddly toys, and flags that reflected her personal history.
Beth’s work gained wider recognition in 2015 when she was commissioned by Artichoke to create three neon signs for Durham's Lumiere festival, inspired by an 11th-century text found in Durham Cathedral.
In 2018, with the acquisition of a dedicated studio space, she returned to painting and drawing, revisiting earlier themes with renewed focus. Her painting style, influenced by artists like Bridget Riley, Beatriz Milhazes, and Agnes Martin, marries hard-edged geometric abstraction with subtle textural details, creating a tactile, visceral experience for the viewer. The controlled lines and borders in her work are contrasted with the sensuality of the soft textures, embodying the tension between order and emotion.
Beth's artistic process is deeply ritualistic, with each piece beginning as a fleeting idea that may be sketched or simply held in mind until it demands a physical manifestation.
Her practice is informed by both private and collective memories, the essence of place, and the passage of time, all viewed through a feminist lens. Her method of mixing paints and applying layers of colour is as much about the tactile experience as it is about the final visual outcome, often using her hands and fingers to build up surfaces that reveal the presence of the artist.
In addition to her studio practice, Beth has been actively involved in public art and community projects. She is currently an Artist in Residence at Cresswell Pele Tower in Northumberland (2023-2024) and a member of the advisory group for Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (MIMA). Her work has been exhibited extensively across the UK and Europe, with recent exhibitions at NCA in Newcastle, Gallagher and Turner in Newcastle, and According to McGee in York.
Beth has received several prestigious awards, including the Developing Your Creative Practice grant from Arts Council England and a bursary from the Contemporary Visual Arts Network in partnership with the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art. Her work is represented by Artiq Art Agency, and she continues to seek new opportunities to expand her practice, particularly in the fields of public art and commercial commissions.
Beth Ross's work continues to resonate with those who encounter it, offering a deeply personal yet universal exploration of memory, place, and the passage of time. Her commitment to exploring these themes through a variety of media, coupled with her unique approach to colour and texture, makes her a compelling voice in contemporary art.
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Mark Walmsley FRSA FCIM AGSM
Chief Culture Vulture
Arts & Culture Network
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