Leonard Sexton is an artist consistent in his approach to interpreting the intangible and confrontational qualities of his subjects. His figurative studies and sea, land and cityscapes are inspired by emotion, tension and movement associated with his subjects rather than by visual information. Despite his canvases being ravaged by storms of paint – ploughed, scraped and aggressively punctuated across the surface, delicately orchestrated images emerge, contradicting and defying his assertive painterly manner.

Artist Leonard Sexton has obviously spent a great deal of time observing the fluid marine vista of Balbriggan and his native Skerries. The results speak for themselves in his Harbour Scenes, heavily reworked oil on canvases which are a restless as the irish landscape the artist is transcribing. Each canvas, composed of heavy and colourful swathes of paint, captures the ever-shifting and dynamic panorama of the ports in question.

Much of his output to date has explored the female form in a series of beautifully executed paintings, alongside his signature landscape works of his hometown, Skerries, Co. Dublin. His painting technique is based on a system of over-painting, where he paints over the image until it is barely visible, leaving only a fleeting impression so that each mark is as important as the next.

My basic philosophy in life is tenacity of purpose, as Samuel Beckett put it. If work is going well, I’ll get up at 6am, keen to get back to whatever image I’m working on. There’s a feeling of euphoria if work is going well, a despondency if it isn’t.

Leonard Sexton’s work lays bare the secret function of painting. In most cultural contexts, painting’s role is to chart cultural shifts and to illustrate its most worthy narratives. Sexton has not foisted these functions onto his shoulders. Instead, his paintings react much like an acutely sensitive meteorological instrument gauged to explore raw emotional responses and inner archetypal questions.