Ben (@justben) • Collective gay friends app

Ben @justben

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

Untitled (currently) Playing with oils again and having a blast. It’s so rich and rewarding. Absolute b*tch to photograph though - I will be applying a half matte / satin gloss because a pet peeve is overly varnished oil paintings that can’t be seen from a normal viewing angle because of glare!!

Getting Rob’d 🫢

Anyone in London green fingered / houseplant daddy? I need to downsize my collection and i’d like them to go to good homes. 💚

Pretty great view from Tate Mod at night!

Salman Toor ‘9pm, The News’ 2015 (cropped here #penisalert) Something positive... well the fact rather than the subject of the painting. This Toor painting is now on general display at Tate Modern, which makes me happy. More queer figuration in the mainstream please.

Antoni Tàpies ’Grey and green painting 1957’ Continued... I understand human apocalypse isn’t a foregone conclusion of the arrival of General Intelligence. But I do feel grief, or Pre-grief? For what we might lose, for what we surrendered for hollow content and for the death of critical thinking.

Lee Krasner ‘Gothic Landscape’ 1961 So much grief in this. I’m feeling grateful that I am alive and can feel anything. AI can’t feel anything. GI might be smarter than us, maybe even more creative in the literal sense. But it will never feel anything. Everything it creates will be hollow. Tbc...

M o t h e r Finished this larger work today. The work has a lot of meaning for me and was desperately needed as an antidote to my last larger work, one which dealt with some feelings of toxic masculinity and culture war. This brings me back to a softer, hopeful, feminine energy, hence the title.

🍁🍂🍁🍂🍁

Edinburgh, 2015 #35mm

Can you imagine the smell? Getting autumn cosy 🍁🍎

N o t W i t h A B a n g

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

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.