When Ed Sheeran picks up the paintbrush | Art-and-culture News
I paint when I’m not working on a record, just to do something creative with my brain” posted singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran on social media, days before his solo exhibition opens at London’s Heni Gallery in Soho on July 11.
Featuring original artworks the famed pop star, the exhibition titled ‘Cosmic Carpark Paintings’ comprises abstracts made the pop star between concerts last year.
Donning a white protective suit, Sheeran shares his process of creation on social media, as he is seen splashing colours on canvases spread across the floor. Crediting art Damien Hirst and Joe Hage, founder of Heni Group, for encouraging him to exhibit his paintings, he further writes, “… And it’s mostly just splashing colours on canvases, think Jackson Pollock but with colourful house paint. I am no means ‘an art’, but I do love making art, it makes me feel great, and I love the end result.”
Named the most played art in the UK seven times, Sheeran has several No 1 albums to his name, including Divide (2017), Subtract (2013) and Multiply (2014). Growing up in Suffolk, on the east coast of England, he has often spoken about enjoying studying art in school. His father, John Sheeran, is a retired art curator and educator and his mother is a jewellery designer.
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The Heni website shares that his painting journey began in 2019, after his Divide tour ended. A note states, “Using his spare time to create original artworks, in 2020, he used one of his early creations as the official artwork for his single Afterglow. Skip forward to 2025, the Cosmic Carpark Paintings release offers the public their first chance of collecting his original artworks and edition prints. Inspired celestial patterns, and in keeping with his well-documented, expression splash painting style, Sheeran painted his debut collection in a disused car park in London last year in between the international leg of his Mathematics Tour.”
Fifty per cent of the proceeds from the sale of the works will be donated to The Ed Sheeran Foundation, which aims to provide music education for children.
