Yes
After successfully defeating the plagiarism allegations on his music, Ed Sheeran may not be so successful when it comes to his paintings. The singer doesn’t claim to be a fine artist, but still sells his work? His chaotic, paint-splattered pieces clearly mimic Jackson Pollock’s style (an artist known for throwing just about anything at a canvas) but lack the artistic experimentation and imagination to be anything notable. It's like he followed a Bob Ross tutorial on how to splat paint.
Picasso was allegedly once asked to draw a picture on a napkin which he proceeded to produce in a few seconds. A woman asked him how much the picture would cost, to which he responded a million francs, explaining that the picture was not just the result of the few minutes he spent on it. He told her, "My dear, it took me a lifetime to be able to draw this sketch." With this small interaction, Picasso captures the essence of artistic development.
Ed Sheeran’s work, however, captures the essence of crayons that have melted in the sun. It’s like he coloured outside the lines but the lines were never there to begin with. Arguably, art isn't just about the final result but about the process, context, and journey leading up to this point. Sheeran himself admitted to lacking artistic process and he clearly just ignores the nuances and techniques of Pollock’s work, chucks down a tarp, and throws paint at a canvas.
No
On the whole, Sheeran is a pretty sound guy. Who doesn't love a cheeky bit of ‘Galway Girl’ on a lengthy roadtrip? I commend him on belonging to the camp of relatively unproblematic celebrities – that can’t be an easy feat in the world of fame.
I say let the man paint! Ed donates all profits from his paintings to charity (aw) and he’s even acknowledged his paintings did not make him "an artist". They don't tend to go for more than £900 ($2000), a similar amount to what Justin Bieber used to sell his underwear for.
Some have argued his work “lacks meaning”. But here’s the thing: since when did art need meaning? Have you seen Matisse’s late work? It looks like a Caroline Gardener pencil case design. People cry in front of it. So let Ed Sheeran paint. Let him smear, splodge, and dab. At the end of the day, the world doesn’t need more tortured geniuses. It needs more ginger men in hazmat suits, wondering if that’s the front or back of the canvas.