Ed Sheeran launches exhibition of his Cosmic Carpark Paintings in London
Sheeran said: 'I started painting at the end of my Divide Tour in 2019 and it's something that I've used as a creative outlet ever since.
'When I was growing up, both of my parents worked in art, so I've naturally always been interested in it, and I always enjoyed studying art at school. I was back and forth on tour last year, and I used a lot of my downtime in the UK to paint.
'I'd run to a disused car park in Soho each morning, paint, then run home and I'd do that daily until I headed back out on tour again.
'I told my good friends Damien Hirst and Joe Hage about the paintings, and they encouraged me to put on my own thing.
'So I decided I'd use it as a way of raising funds for my Ed Sheeran Foundation, which supports music education in the UK and helps fund grassroot music projects, schools and equipment, so all kids have access to music.
'I want to thank Damien and Joe for everything they've done for me on this exhibition and I'm delighted to be putting it on.'
In 2020, one of the Shape Of You singer's paintings was used as the single cover for his track Afterglow, with his latest collection being painted in a disused car park in London last year.
The paintings were initially designed to be gifted to the Halifax-born star's friends and family, however artist Hirst encouraged him to put on an exhibition to raise money for his foundation, giving the public their first chance to own his artwork.
Some 50% of the net sale price from each painting will be donated to the Ed Sheeran Foundation, with the works available on the Heni website between July 10 and August 1.
Admission to the exhibition is free.
Sheeran has had 14 UK number one singles and eight UK number one albums, his best known songs include The A Team, Lego House, Sing, and Don't.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mirror
an hour ago
- Daily Mirror
Michelle Keegan stuns fans with bikini snaps just months after giving birth
Former Coronation Street star Michelle Keegan became a first time mum in March this year - but she is already back promoting her swimwear brand and showing off her latest designs Michelle Keegan may have given birth to her first child just four months ago, but she is already back to work and flogging bikinis that she has designed - winning support and praise from fans in the process. The 38-year-old former Coronation Street star became a first time mum in March this year as she welcomed her daughter, named Palma, with her husband - reality star Mark Wright, 38. Most new mothers in the UK take advantage of the 26-52 weeks statutory maternity leave once welcoming their bundle of joy. But Michelle proved she was ready and raring to get back to work this weekend as she modelled her latest line of bikinis and beach wear from her Orfila Bee fashion line. Taking to Instagram on Sunday, Michelle shared a collection of snaps of herself wearing a brown bikini and a cowgirl hat. She paired the items with a lightweight white sarong which was tied around her waist and a white summer beach top that covered her arms. The star uploaded the images to her main grid alongside a caption stating: "We really did make the chicest cover up @orfilabee." Fans were stunned to see Michelle back at work - and showing off her toned figure. One impressed follower remarked in the comments section: "Thought she just had a baby?" While another echoed: "How have you just birthed a child?" Earlier this month, it was revealed that Michelle has been "torn" over her future - with the possibility of big acting roles and her new role as a mother pulling her in opposite directions. A source told The Mirror last weekend: 'Michelle has always been a hard worker, so she's torn between staying at home with Palma and getting back out there. 'It's not an easy industry – you're self-employed so you never know when your next job might be. It's still really early days, but these are the questions she's asking herself, because she's very much in demand. Everything Michelle touches lately seems to turn to gold.' Weeks earlier it was reported that Stockport-born Michelle had signed a six-figure deal to become the new face of Sky – alongside Luther star Idris Elba. Arguably still most famous for playing Tina McIntyre on Coronation Street from 2008 until 2014, Michelle went on to carve out an impressive acting career across a variety of genres. She made an impact as an army soldier in the hit BBC show Our Girl from 2016 until 2020. And more recently she enjoyed success on the Netflix drama Fool Me Once, and has won fans for her comedy work on the Sky series Brassic. Away from acting, she has drawn further attention for her fashion collaborations - and her romantic life. She began dating The Only Way Is Essex star Mark Wright in 2013 - and they became engaged that same year. It wasn't until May 2015 that they tied the knot - and then almost 10 full decades later, the happy couple started their own family with the arrival of Palma.
Spectator
14 hours ago
- Spectator
How to fix MasterChef
In retrospect, as has so often been the case with my attempts at Delia's thrice-baked goat's cheese soufflé, the question was not so much when MasterChef was going to collapse, but how. The warning signs were there. Not only in 2001 when Lloyd Grosman, Britain's answer to Paul Newman (in pasta sauce endorsement terms if not acting), flounced off the show because, so far as I understand the dispute, a revamp dictated that contestants all use the same ingredient. But also in 2018, when now disgraced judges Gregg Wallace and John Torode managed to unify the whole of Malaysia in affront. For which feat, whatever their later sins, I salute them. It was episode 13 of series 14 and Malaysian-born contestant Zaleha Olpin presented her beloved childhood favourite chicken rendang recipe, served with a side of nasi lemak, only for Wallace to complain the chicken was not crispy enough and for Torode to call the dish a mistake. Typical Malaysian response? 'As a Malaysian, if I could, I would personally go to the show and rendang their head,' wrote Jin Wee in the Star, a Malaysian newspaper, adding superbly: 'Uncultured swine, doesn't know variety of cuisine and claims to be MasterChef?' As anyone who does know their rendang would tell the judges, its chicken isn't meant to be crispy. A former Malaysian premier complained Wallace had confused his nation's cuisine with KFC. The only winner in the dispute was the English language which gained a new verb, though beyond a slightly sinister aura it's hard to know what 'to rendang' means. That's the problem: everyone's a critic and everybody involved has a very thin skin, and is apt to explode at any moment. Torode made matters worse by tweeting something emollient and ending his message with a cheery 'Namaste'. Didn't he realise that namaste is not a fitting Malaysian farewell, fumed naysayers? Some 9,000 signatures supported a petition calling on him to apologise. Which, unless I've lost my mind and without wanting to make 9,000 enemies, is some loony woke nonsense. And yet the debacle points up how fraught televised cookery is and how it risks becoming a lethal cocktail of chippy keyboard warriors facing off against the kind of unexamined man babies who, insanely, have been given access to the knife drawer. That purported genius chef from The Bear who locked himself in the walk-in fridge to have a nervous breakdown on his restaurant's opening night and Ralph Fiennes poisoning anyone who ever crossed him in The Menu are the leading exemplars of the latter. And those are just kitchen fictions. As we know from Gordon Ramsay, reality TV is apt to be a yet more harrowing chip pan fire of the vanities than its fictional counterparts. But the broader point is this: Britain is a country that, if one made a compilation of its best culinary moments, would definitely begin with King Alfred burning the cakes and might well end with Gregg Wallace telling social media that the only people outraged by his propensity to drop his trousers backstage to present onlookers with his signature dish of sorpresa all porca were middle class women with humanities degrees from Russell Group universities who don't appreciate what, looked at objectively, was just proletarian high jinks – so far as I understand his apology to the complaints of more than 50 women involved on the show. It is a miracle that a nation so infamous for its cuisine has been such a tastemaker for so long. And yet it has: in 2017 the Guinness Book of Records officially recognised MasterChef as the most successful television cookery format. MasterChef is one of this post-industrial nation's most successful export products, filmed in 50 countries and broadcast in 200 territories, with many formats of which the Brazilian variant MasterChef: Para Tudo (MasterChef: Stop Everything) sounds most exciting. MasterChef's origin story takes us back to 1990, when clever producers created it as the spawn of Mastermind if less cerebral, and sibling of Angela Rippon's Masterteam but less collaborative. If only Dame Angela had been recruited as host, none of this nonsense of recent weeks on MasterChef would have happened. There would have been no Wallace ascribing his sexual misconduct to autism, and no Torode preparing a defence for his sacking over alleged racist remarks, to damage the brand. Plus the former newsreader could have high-kicked her way through the longueurs of food preparation, which would have got my vote. Who wants to watch people from Daventry stir gravy on telly eyed by these two, Wallace with his grin as mirthless as de Niro's and Torode, like the Assyrian king in Delacroix's The Death of Sardanapalus, dead eyed and sated from excess of, in his case, competitively cooked cuisine? That's not jeopardy. That's telly tedium. But then I didn't understand the appeal of Friends either. What happens next? Can MasterChef be put together again? That's not how Humpty Dumpty nor soufflés work. True, critic and occasional judge Grace Dent was astutely hired last year to replace Wallace during investigations into his misconduct. With her lovely regional accent and long association with the show, she is the right person to detox the brand. And what of the most recent unbroadcast series? All those contestants denied their moments of prime time fame? It's possible they might have a case to sue for denial of self-publicity and loss of projected future income attendant thereon, though I'm no lawyer. Perhaps only many years hence, like Bob Dylan's the Basement Tapes or those Bruce Springsteen albums now coming to light, will the time be right to release the last series to an expectant public. Dent would need a co-host, ideally one with culinary moves. I recommend communist Moral Maze contributor Ash Sarkar whose recipe for fish finger bhorta was championed by no less a domestic goddess than Nigella Lawson. Neither Dent nor Sarkar, I'll wager, would get caught with their trousers down in the green room or alienate whole countries. And one final change to detoxify MasterChef: the name, with all the unacceptable patriarchal connotations of its prefix, must go even if the format remains the same. My suggestion? Dinner Ladies, with Grace and Ash. You know you'd watch it.
Daily Mirror
17 hours ago
- Daily Mirror
Ruth Langsford's 'shock message' to Eamonn Holmes amid 'fight to keep £3.6m mansion'
Ruth Langsford has never looked better and, as she moves on following her split from Eamonn Holmes, friends close to the star claim her ditching her wedding ring was a significant sign There is 'no turning back' for Ruth Langsford, after being spotted without her wedding ring for the first time in more than a year after splitting from Eamonn Holmes. The Loose Women veteran announced her shock break-up with her husband of 14 years last May, and a source tells OK! that ditching the ring after so long was a significant move on Ruth's part. The source close to the star says, 'Removing that ring might have been a shock to fans, after she's worn it for so long. But it was the final bit of closure. It was a message to Eamonn and symbolic that Ruth's marriage and that chapter of her life is over. She's closing the door on her past for good. 'Taking it off is Ruth saying, 'I've moved on, it's all behind me.' She's just desperate to get this divorce out of the way, now. There's no turning back.' READ MORE: Amanda Holden is a vision in on-sale Karen Millen dress that plays into Wimbledon whites trend Keen cook Ruth, who has son Jack, 23, with her Belfast-born ex, also 65, posted an Instagram video recently which showed her happily prepping one of her 'favourite summer dishes' – a 'colourful, no-cook salad'. It's not the first time Ruth – now locked in a divorce battle with GB News presenter Eamonn – has shared her culinary exploits on social media, but it's the first time she's done so having quietly removed the wedding ring on her left hand. It came after a frail-looking Eamonn, who continues to battle serious health issues, was seen using a walking frame at a glitzy night out in London with girlfriend Katie Alexander, 43, on his arm. The pair were attending fellow GB News star Nana Akua's glamorous party as Nana celebrated her engagement to fiancé Stephen Gillen at London's swanky Blue Marlin Club. As for Ruth, she has, for the most part, maintained a dignified silence on her split from Eamonn. However, ditching her wedding ring could be the biggest sign yet that she's over her estranged husband, along with the wild nights out she has enjoyed with showbiz pals such as Rylan Clark and Lizzie Cundy, as documented on social media. Ruth, who has had quite a glow-up in recent months, did address the break-up on Instagram last September when a fan posed a question in response to a video she had posted, which showed her sharing how to make a healthy drink. 'Why has she still got her wedding rings on?' the fan asked, to which Ruth fired back, 'Because I'm still married.' She then added two crying with laughter emojis to make sure the fan knew she was keeping her sense of humour about the pointed question. Meanwhile, the former couple's divorce battle rumbles on. Ruth had previously hired a top divorce lawyer, and it's believed she has been fighting to ensure she can keep their £3.6 million six-bedroom home in Surrey. Back in May, counsellor Katie had her own 'ring-gate' moment, when she took to social media to shut down rumours that she and Eamonn were engaged, after followers spotted what they thought was an engagement ring on her finger in a snap with former This Morning host Eamonn. Katie preempted any speculation, stating, 'Before anyone jumps to the #ringgate bandwagon, the camera is reversed so... RightHandRingFinger!' Meanwhile, whether Eamonn takes the next step with Katie or not, our source claims that Ruth is focused on the future. 'As all her friends are saying, Ruth has never looked or felt better. She's rested, she's looking great, she's enjoying her Pilates sessions and life is good.' Indeed, the svelte-looking star – who also has her own successful clothing line on shopping channel QVC – is not only eating healthily but enjoying regular workouts, as she gave fans a sneak peek of her exercise routine last week, showcasing a workout which she claimed was already making her stronger. 'Weekend Pilates with @siobhanklloyd,' Ruth posted on Instagram. 'This move is called Baby Swan apparently – it was hard so I'm not looking forward to progressing to grown-up swan!! Really loving mixing up mat sessions and Reformer... my core is already feeling stronger.' The source adds, 'Ruth is literally living her best life. She knows Eamonn is happy with Katie and she's really not bothered about what his future plans are. 'She's putting everything into looking after herself and her career right now, which she loves. The only thing holding her back is the divorce – it's going on way too long and she just wants it to be over so she can get on with her life.'
