Ben Randall is a Hawkesbury-based abstract painter whose bold, expressive oil paintings are built through layers of energetic mark-making, scraping and rebuilding. Inspired by the changing light, colour and weather of the landscape around him, Ben balances spontaneity with months of deliberate work. A 2026 Regional Art Prize finalist, he has exhibited at Hawkesbury Regional Gallery and held a solo show at Tyger Gallery.
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Ben Randall is an Australian abstract painter whose practice examines gesture, surface and the emotional responses embedded in the simple act of observing. Working with oil paints, Randall draws on the immediacy of alla prima painting while developing a layered, process-driven methodology that incorporates initial charcoal mark-making. His paintings evolve through repeated cycles of revision – scraping, removing and rebuilding – allowing the surface to hold both intention and uncertainty.
Central to Randall’s practice is an exploration of how nature can be simultaneously beautiful and destructive, and how observing these forces shapes our emotional experience of everyday life. Living in the Hawkesbury region (Dharug Country), he is inspired by the shifting environmental conditions around him – the changing light, humidity, seasonal colour and physicality of weather – which he interprets through his own abstract voice rather than direct representation.
2026 – Regional Art Prize finalist
2026 – Hawkesbury Now, Hawkesbury Regional Gallery
