Sean Scully In Edinburgh

Sean Scully is cradling an imaginary finch in his large hands. His blue eyes well up with tears as he tells how he found this tiny, broken-winged bird by the wayside. He held it tenderly in the palms of both hands, felt its wee heart fluttering in panic then fed it drops of water, only for it to die. Over the years, the renowned and hugely popular Dublin-born painter has saved more than 200 birds. He can imitate their songs beautifully and, as a desperately unhappy child growing up in a family that was "dysfunctional beyond belief," he once had his own animal hospital. "I am restless, a troubled, fragile spirit," he says. "I can't seem to find my home, a resting place. It's not the easiest way to live because I hunger to fill that void inside myself. Maybe my work is my way of weaving everything back together, but there's no shelter, no protection in this life. Art does not console me. As a man, I have no worth, no value. I paint therefore I stay alive." Work at Edinburgh's Ingleby Gallery, For the full story - click the title Irish Art