It all begins with a small gesture. A phrase written on a blank canvas—not as a title, nor a statement, but more like a drawn memory. A clue that connects him to someone, to a moment that left a mark on his life. Each of Ike’s paintings begins with a memory, a phrase that holds emotional resonance. An intimate yet powerful starting point.

In Ike’s painting process, there is no intention of representing anything concrete, but rather of exploring the intangible: color, texture, space. His work is overtly abstract and non-representational, but his method brings him close to conceptual painting. He follows specific instructions he sets for himself: write a meaningful phrase, cover it with layers of color, work the background, apply intense pigment gestures. Layer by layer, the image reveals itself—along with something deeper: a lived experience, a connection, an emotion.

The process is just as important as the outcome. And while Ike plans it carefully, he always leaves room for intuition. He knows when a painting is finished—not by logic, but by internal resonance.

Living in rural Ireland, on a family farm passed down through six or seven generations, shapes his artistic sensibility. Being immersed in nature, for him, is like inhabiting a canvas in constant motion. “Living in nature is like sitting inside a painting,” he says. That phrase captures his approach to art: embracing uncertainty, allowing himself to be surprised.

Nature—like painting—is unpredictable. It follows no rules and guarantees no results. That’s why Ike mostly paints in the afternoon, in isolation, as a personal ritual where memory, landscape, and perception merge. Yet his work also offers a quiet reflection on our digital present, where human interaction has become brief, filtered, and often hollow.

This series of paintings emerged from a transformative experience: walking the “Camino de Santiago” with his son. During that journey, Ike became aware of his own isolation and his need to reconnect. Along the way—both physical and spiritual—he began opening up to chance encounters with strangers, engaging in meaningful conversations that left a trace. Phrases like “The illusion of endless options” became part of his painting process—poetic records of a human connection, almost like epitaphs of an encounter.

Translating that spiritual experience into the language of painting is no easy task. But Ike does it through a self-imposed ritual that blends introspection with presence: challenging himself to meet someone new, to listen closely, and from that simple act, begin a new painting.

"We Were Meant to Meet" speaks to the beauty of the unexpected. Of authentic connection in times of disconnection. In each painting, Ike captures that fleeting moment when two paths cross—in a conversation, a phrase, a glance—and turns it into something lasting. An intimate reminder that, sometimes, art is also a way of remembering that we are not alone.