Ed Sheeran has donated one of his paintings to a raffle to raise funds for a cancer charity in his home county.
The 29-year-old pop star hopes that his colourful abstract artwork, called Splash Planet, will help the Cancer Campaign in Suffolk (CCiS).
“The painting is one of mine, one of the big splashy ones that you saw in the Afterglow cover,” the singer-songwriter said, in a video message recorded for the charity.
“The way that you enter it is it’s going to be a raffle, it’s not going to be going for some astronomical price, you pay a small amount, enter a raffle, we pick a winner at random and then one lucky winner gets the painting.
“I hope you enter, it goes to a really fantastic cause and it’s going to help a lot of people, so thank you very much and lots of love.”
Sheeran previously donated another painting, Dab 2, to a charity auction, where it sold for £40,000.
He painted Splash Planet, the artwork he has donated to the raffle, at the same time as he created Dab 2.
In a previous interview, describing how he painted them, Sheeran said: “I painted a canvas a day for 30 days.
“It was really fun. It’s kind of Jackson Pollocky.
“I bought house paint and just layered it up by flicking it. I just do my art and I love doing it.
“It’s something that makes me happy, that no-one else needs to judge.
“There’s no part of the creative process that people judge, if you’re just doing it for yourself.
“Creativity is an amazing thing to make people happy… you just do it and it’s fun.”
He worked on the paintings after his long-running Divide world tour, which ended with a series of homecoming gigs in Ipswich in 2019.
Karen Hare, chief executive of CCiS, said: “We are a small local charity and are so excited and grateful to Ed for showing his support for our work in making this terrific gift to CCiS.
“Every pound raised helps hugely and will enable us to continue all our projects, give us some security and the opportunity to meet the future needs of those living with cancer.”
People can enter the raffle from 10am on Friday February 12 until 10am on Friday March 12, when the winner will be selected at random.
Tickets cost £20 each.
Proceeds raised from the raffle will help fund the charity’s counselling, complementary therapies and beauty and wellbeing projects.
For details of how to buy a ticket, see https://www.ccisuffolk.org/
Sheeran’s video message will also be uploaded there from 10am UK time on Friday February 12.
