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Ben @justben
Thoughtful arty type in South London. Practicing painting, kindness, piano, gratitude... Looking for creative, genuine people... my tribe.

N o t W i t h A B a n g
B l i n k
I’m glad I’ve got you lovely people to enjoy and appreciate my art. I know I shouldn’t get upset about open call rejections but when they choose three art works from one artist and it’s just a bunch of pears on a tablecloth... would it have killed you to have one less pear and make room for little ol’ me. 🤪 Anyway, fair play to pear lady, they are nice pears and not bitter like me. 😅 Q. Should I paint pears and not existential dread?
Untitled drawing Mirza Čizmíc b.1985 Bosnia Check out his instagram, his paintings are wonderful. I wanted to share a fave but #butt. You’ll have to go find it.
K n o w N o E v i l
C o n f i d e n t
A l o n e
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❤️ Tallinn
Hello Tallinn!
F r e s h 🎨
My latest square babies. I showed a friend my work recently and he made an acute observation; the work I feel is most successful all has a “nucleus” that everything else relates to. I’d never thought of it in those terms but I think he’s right. I guess I need something solid to ... cling to?
Jack Davison for M Magazine Check out his insta if you like this - one of my favourite contemporary artists.
Contemplating painting these whilst I still can. ⏳☀️
A very English start to the day. Toast and tea. Have a wonderful weekend lovely people of Collective. ❤️
Beautiful flower on my turbinicarpus flaviflorus 😍
Quick fun one. Let's call it Quiet City.
Done. Probably... Might tinker. I also need a name but it's still too raw to think about.
I can’t get over how vivid these flowers are. Believe me, I’ve tried with the photo to match what I’m seeing but I’d anything the chroma is way more intense in reality! Plus it’s so bizarre, those structures... love it. Aeschynanthus speciosus Aeschynanthus speciosus
WIP 🚧 Not sure where it’s heading but I’m enjoying the journey so far.
Summer hanging in there
New family dog / fruit bat is so sweet it’s painful. Instant love. 🥰
This is how I sit in 🇫🇷
Anthony Cudahy ‘Arthur Russell on the shore’ 2023
Adam Baker ‘Amber Hours’ 2025 This artist has an exhibition upcoming in London (Beers Gallery, Farringdon). Opens 25/09.
Busy night of self expression
Anyone else like a weird succulent? This is Euphorbia medusa. She’s all snakey but look at those cute little blooms, what a lovely display.
First painting in oil. Instantly obsessed, what a joy to work with. Definitely need better ventilation in my study though 🥴
Beautiful fluid dynamics in the clouds over London today. Bumped the contrast to bring out the structures. So pretty!
🐿️ 🌼 🌼🌼
Stop for the red light A rose, at every time Demands to be seen
Keith Vaughn Small Assembly of Figures 1951 Keith Vaughn was a fascinating figure - I recently read a book with annotated excerpts of his diaries and it is incredibly moving account of a troubled life. I still think about it often.
John Latham Man Caught Up with a Yellow Object, 1954 A fragmented figure seems to emerge from a haze. It could suggest deep anxieties, which were widespread in the 1950s, about alienation and the pointlessness of individual action. However, Latham saw the yellow object as a symbol of enlightenment
Crop from Bridget Riley’s ‘Fall’, 1963. Tate Britain. Is it moving in reality? Have a guess 😵‍💫
Following the last post re: getting deep. A gentle first question for the community, in two parts. 1. What is your earliest memory centred on food? 2. How does it make you feel to think about that memory now?
Making deeper connections in life requires us to be genuinely curious about other people. Pretty obvious, right? But how often do you approach the people in your life with something deeper than surface level small talk? What are the things we’re afraid of, that prevent us from getting deep? Is it the fear of being judged or rejected if we show too much of our true selves, or do we worry that others might find us insubstantial on closer inspection? We need to rid ourselves of these and other fears. Life is short and precious and we all deserve to be seen in all our glory and our insecurity with love. So consider this a PSA - if you’re feeling disconnected and craving authentic connection, ask more questions of the people in your life and encourage it of others. It doesn’t need to be an interrogation, it can be deep and fun or serious, emotional even. All it requires of you is imagination, understanding, respect and to try letting go of your fears about how it might go. I’m going to ask someone questions to the community, feel free to try them out in your offline life. ❤️
Watercolour work from 2024, no title as of yet but I have some thoughts. Always interested to hear others’ ideas so don’t be shy!
First prom of the year and it was a beauty. Great view from the galleries but a bit too far from the action so back to the pit next time.
First day of The Artist’s Way. 3 pages of thoughts with no filter - it was tough. Lots of issues to unpack, maybe a bit too much self-indulgent wallowing but I guess that’s to be expected for day one. Three months of this daily exercise should help clear the pipes and allow me to pull something useful out of myself. I just want to be more the driver, less the passenger. More active, less passive. I don’t want to hide from all the things that scare me. I wrote about how I’d like to be numb sometimes and immediately wrote about how guilty I felt for even thinking that, then that I should be more kind to myself, then that being too kind to myself is the source of the inaction that is frustrating me. Self-therapy in real time? I don’t know, but I feel some knots are at least being untied and I can try to knit the threads into something better.
Hypnotic 😵‍💫
Desperately wish to live here and sun myself in that tower every day or watch the rain. Where my genies at?

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