Gina Long, an artist who took up painting after Ed Sheeran donated a work to a charity auction she helped create, is holding her first exhibition at the age of 64. The show, titled Square Peg Round Hole, opens at St Edmundsbury Cathedral in Bury St Edmunds on Wednesday and Thursday.
Inspired by Sheeran's abstract work
Long, founder of the former Suffolk children's charity GeeWizz, which closed in 2023, said Sheeran's colourful abstract painting Dab 2 2020 “stayed with me”. Sheeran, 35, donated the piece to an auction in 2020 that benefited charities including GeeWizz, where it fetched £40,000.
Long, from Fornham St Martin, Suffolk, described the painting as “created in a Jackson Pollock-inspired style” and said “something about seeing creativity expressed so freely stayed with me”. She said she “never planned to become an artist” but is now exhibiting her work.
From greenhouse to gallery
“After the auction, I ordered some canvases, set up a space in my greenhouse, and simply started painting,” she said. “I had no formal training, no grand plan, and no expectation of where it might lead.
“Three years later, after receiving commissions from around the world I have created a body of work that is so deeply personal, that literally came from waking up one morning knowing I had to paint… That was two years ago.”
Exhibition details
Her series, Square Peg Round Hole, consists of 32 colourful abstracts displayed as 16 pairs. Long reflected on the title: “I think I feel like a square peg in a round hole, having spent so many ever-changing years of my life in the lane that I’ve created for myself, absolutely breaking a lot of unrealistic expectations and for the majority of the time, feeling like you don’t belong.”
She added: “I’ve moved between business, charity, farming, campaigning, communications and now art. Every time I’ve changed direction there have been people who thought it didn’t quite fit.
“The irony is that I’ve come to realise at 64 we’re not supposed to fit perfectly into someone else’s idea of who we should be. The older I get, the more comfortable I am with being a square peg. In fact, I think that’s often where the most interesting things in life happen.”
The exhibition is free for the public to visit.
