Ed Sheeran raises more than $1 million for charity by selling his splatter paintings

In addition to being a singer, songwriter and occasional actor, Ed Sheeran is a literal artist: He creates paintings by splattering colorful house paint all over large canvases. Now he’s announced that his first-ever show of those paintings has raised well over 1 million bucks for charity.

Ed announced earlier this summer that he’d been asked by a gallery to exhibit his work, but he wanted all the money he made from sales of the paintings to go to his foundation, which supports music education in the U.K. The Cosmic Carpark Paintings show opened in July, and Ed has revealed it was quite successful.

Ed wrote on Instagram, “When I started painting, I only did it for fun and to give to friends. When [a gallery] approached me to put some work in an exhibition, I said I would only do it if my proceeds could go to my music foundation, coz I loved the idea of art funding art.”

“After 6 weeks of the exhibition being up, we’ve sold all the paintings, and a lot of prints / merch. We’ve raised $1.25M usd from it all, which will do absolutely incredible things for the youth in UK,” he continued. “I’m so grateful to HENI [Gallery] for giving me a platform and a space to create and exhibit.”

He concluded, “[T]hank you to everyone who came down to the show to see my paintings. All we raised will go a long way to bring the arts to everyone, all over Britain.”