Skerries in focus: Huge crowd attend art exhibition opening

Skerries artist Leonard Sexton has just closed an exhibition showing off a wide range of his works in conjunction with The Blue Leaf Gallery at the OPW offices in St Stephen’s Green in Dublin.

The exhibition was called Broken Halos and was opened by famous poet Theo Dorgan. The Skerries painter, who has a studio in Balbriggan and has been greatly represented locally through the Seahorse Gallery and the Daffodil Gallery received much acclaim for his work.

A huge crowd attended the opening of the exhibition which finished up on August 1st. It was an unique opportunity to see 15 of Leonards large scale works in a suitably grand setting. The works have been described as ‘magnificent, sometimes personal’ and ‘always monumental and filled with emotion and experience’.

Leonard who hails from Skerries and has a studio in Balbriggan has been painting for 25 years. His work is known for being uniquely individual and it has developed an etherial quality which goes beyond dimensions of style and technique.

He began studying art under Paddy Graham in Dublin’s Institute of Technology. Following this he spent some time working in London teaching, in construction and, briefly, in advertising. Since then he has worked solely as a fulltime painter and has developed a recognisable raw, immediate, passionate and energetic style.

The female figures or landscapes in his paintings are often not apparent at first glance but are slowly revealed as the gaze lingers.

The owner of the Seahorse Gallery, Des Hamilton is a great fan of his work, ‘The images make you feel and think, they are suspended in time and sensory perception overtakes visual awareness.’

This artist has reached dizzy heights and in the words of Theo Dorgan ‘this artist has arrived and there is no going back’.