Pee makes an exhibition of himself

HE hasn’t always been painted in a good light but a master of strokes can change impressions.

Former EU Commissioner and Government minister Padraig Flynn left the political landscape nine years ago but rather than wear out the grass on the golf course or take up obsessive hoovering, he has filled much of his free time adapting his electoral artistry to more cultural pursuits. Swapping the canvass for the canvas, Pee the painter can forget about the worry of being framed by political enemies and concentrate on framing the fruits of his imagination instead.

“I find it very therapeutic,” he has said in the past.

As we know, because he told us in an infamous Late Late Show appearance, there was much stress involved in living in two countries, keeping three homes and running numerous cars and housekeepers during his sojourn in Brussels, so the Mayoman deserves to indulge in any activity he feels has restorative properties.

Not that he hasn’t been busy helping to restore another work of art — the Flynn political dynasty. And with TD daughter Beverley now firmly returned to the Fianna Fáil fold, he can sign his name to his achievement in bold brush strokes.

Deputy Bev will be performing the official opening of her father’s first major show in the Linenhall Arts Centre in Castlebar next month. Anyone who expects the wily warrior to exact revenge on old foes by dismembering them in Picassoesque fashion will be disappointed however as visitors to the show will be treated to a more sedate collection of floral compositions, local landscapes and the odd equine scene.

It will also be a purely artistic event as none of the paintings will be for sale.

“They are the result of my journey of rediscovery in a lifetime of interest,” he said, noting his first encounters with the easel were at the age of 12.

How his fortunes changed. One of the works he is expected to borrow back for the show is a painting of his county’s famous Clapper Bridge which, legend has it, one Charles J Haughey had his heart set on only to discover it had already been gifted to someone else.

It, and the rest of the Flynn collection, will be gifted temporarily to the public at large from April 4.