Motherhood is a subject too rarely explored in contemporary art.

‘Broken halos’, an exhibition of new paintings by Leonard Sexton, promises to at least partly redress this imbalance at the Blue Leaf Gallery in Dublin. The stresses of the various stages of motherhood are depicted in unsentimental mode – aging, caring for the young, changing nappies, carrying the child. Much of Sexton’s output to date has explored the female form, alongside signature landscape works of his home town Skerries. His very personal style echoes influences as diverse as Giacometti, Freud and balthus.