How Crisis Became the Start of Something New | Benjamin MacGregor

For this interview on the Arts to Hearts Project website, we spoke with London-based painter Benjamin MacGregor, whose path to painting hasn’t followed the usual script. From his early years as a TV graphic designer to working in maritime security across West Africa, Benjamin shares how a turbulent chapter of his life eventually led him back to art.

In this conversation, he discusses how making furniture altered his approach to painting, how he taught himself by spending hours in museums, and what it felt like to win Sky Arts Landscape Artist of the Year 2025. Through it all, he shows us how experiences—both everyday and extraordinary—can shape what we create and why we continue to create it.

Benjamin Macgregor is a featured artist in our book, “101 ArtBook – Nature Edition” You can explore his journey and the stories of other artists by purchasing the book here:

https://shop.artstoheartsproject.com/products/the-creative-process-book

Ben MacGregor is a self-taught artist based in London. Born in 1979, he grew up in Surrey and worked as a TV graphic designer for five years from 1999 before travelling to Nigeria in 2007 to work in maritime security. It was a role that took him to remote locations across the country, and on to other West African countries including Sierra Leone, Ghana and Ivory Coast. Returning to London in 2015 and contemplating his next steps, he rediscovered a childhood love of painting. A turning point came in 2022, when MacGregor founded high-end bespoke furniture company Nicholson Nash. Working with craft materials helped his painting style evolve. Experiments and trial-and-error processes in the furniture workshop influence the textures and finishes of paintings.

These moments are now integral to his artistic practice. Without art school training, MacGregor has also developed his painting skills by studying the works of past painters in detail. A regular at the National Gallery and the Courtauld in London, he is inspired by the post-impressionists, with Gauguin, Van Gogh and Rousseau as his particular favourites. Other influences are more contemporary, ranging from the colour of David Hockney to the texture and richness of paintings by Dana Schutz and Adrian Ghenie. Like his influences, McGregor is interested in abstraction as a way to break the conventional rules of painting and push boundaries. But, similarly, often with landscapes in focus, that is fuelled by nature. In his hands, the textures of dunes or the different greens of woods can form abstract patterns on a canvas.

In addition to this, sights of everyday life – whether that’s Jack Russells or garden chairs – make their way into his paintings. Using traditional oil paint and a textural brush style, this painterly take on mark-making is complemented by more contemporary techniques. Inspired by his work with materials for Nicholson Nash, canvases are prepared using spraying techniques. Bringing a super-smooth finish to the canvas, the texture of paint is amplified, with the sheen of the canvas sometimes glimpsed through the oils. MacGregor has been recognised for his landscape painting, particularly through the Sky Arts Landscape of the Year competition. He first entered with his painting Bluebells in 2021, making it to the semi-finals. He has continued to compete and was most recently the winner of the 2025 series.

1.   What drew you back to painting after your time in maritime security and travel across West Africa?  

It wasn’t until my late 30s, following what can only be described as a significant personal crisis, that I returned to painting as a means of coping with difficult times. I’d spent the previous 8 years working as a kind of ‘fixer’ across West Africa. I was based in Lagos, Nigeria, primarily, but found myself working across the entirety of Nigeria, Ghana, Benin, Togo, Sierra Leone and Côte d’Ivoire. It can only be described as a mind-bendingly abstract period of my life, which ultimately came crashing down in spectacular fashion. On reflection, I’m lucky the experiences I had didn’t cause me irrevocable damage. I look back on it all now in disbelief, but I can’t say I regret anything that happened. This chapter of my life pushed me to the very edge in so many ways, and ultimately led me back to painting.

I’ve always told myself I’d paint whatever I felt something from, no matter what that was.

Benjamin MacGregor

2.    How has your work with furniture design influenced the textures and finishes in your paintings?      

Although seemingly not closely related to painting, my involvement with furniture provided me with opportunities to experiment further. I started experimenting with surface textures, producing incredibly smooth canvases using the same paint that we use to finish some of our products. This surface allowed me to push and pull the paint around, testing its opacity in new and exciting ways. I found I could create much more explicitly textured and visible brush marks, which enabled me to render elements such as water and flowers in a new way.

3.   You’re self-taught—what’s been the most rewarding part of learning through old masters and galleries?

I didn’t know where to start, so I began studying. Unemployed, as I was, I had time to stand, sometimes for hours on end, looking at my favourite paintings, by the likes of Van Gogh, Cezanne, Rousseau and Frida Kahlo at the National Gallery, the Tate and The Courtauld. I found comfort and inspiration in so many spectacular paintings. I also loved Italian Renaissance art, particularly its surreal and bizarre aspects.

4.   Your landscapes often blur into abstraction—how do you decide where to let nature guide the form? 

Nature pretty much guides all the form that I put into my paintings; the abstraction tends to follow as a result of my distinct style of mark-making and disregard for any accuracy.

Nature pretty much guides all the form that I put into my paintings, the abstraction tends to follow on from this.

Benjamin MacGregor

5. From bluebells to Jack Russells, how do everyday scenes find their way into your work?

I’ve always told myself I’d paint whatever I felt something from, no matter what that was, mainly as a way of avoiding the trap of repetition and ultimately losing the ability to take my painting in any direction I wanted. I could never see myself regurgitating the same painting in lots of different ways; it would kill the creative process for me.

6.    What did winning Sky Arts Landscape Artist of the Year 2025 mean to you personally and artistically?   

I had no intention of re-entering Landscape Artist of the Year until I spotted the prize of a commission for the Courtauld Gallery, following in the footsteps of Van Gogh, Paul Cezanne and Monet, artists I’d long admired. It was simply too good an opportunity to miss. I never thought I’d win, but I did feel I wanted to challenge myself and try. I guess I owe the program more than I can express. On both occasions, participating in the competition has enabled me to make giant leaps forward in my artistic development that I’d never have anticipated.

Winning the show was a huge achievement and a milestone in my career. The visit to the South of France to make the winners’ film was a truly once-in-a-lifetime experience, and following in the footsteps of three of my favourite artists was a huge honour. Nonetheless, the magnitude of the prize, particularly having my commission hanging in the Courtauld, surrounded by expressionist and post-expressionist masterpieces, weighed incredibly heavily on me. It was hard to imagine producing something that was even a tiny bit worthy of being exhibited in such a prestigious location.

Benjamin MacGregor’s paintings carry the marks of his many lives—graphic designer, maritime fixer, furniture maker, and painter. His work often starts with a connection to nature or something seen in passing, and then shifts into abstraction through texture, colour, and instinct. What stands out in his journey is the way he has followed curiosity and allowed change to shape his practice. From museum visits to experimenting with furniture finishes on canvas, Benjamin’s story reminds us that growth doesn’t need a straight path. It’s about staying open, paying attention, and finding new ways to look at what’s in front of us.

To learn more about Benjamin, click the following links to visit her profile.

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