The Relinquish series is a growing body of work completed in a non-finito style that is both experimental and explorative in nature. As a naturally highly technical and detailed artist who has specialised in storyboard and automotive art for over a decade, the theme of this series initially began as an experiment in ‘letting go’ as a painter, to leave the works consciously unresolved. This intentional unfinishedness was a rebellion against my former ultra-detailed-artist-self, and catharsis from my 24 to 48 hour illustration deadlines.
Yet I quickly discovered that it is in fact within the incomplete that there is everything to search for, ask for, think and discover. In the unresolved there are expansive possibilities and no right answers. In non-finito paintings you look at endless possibilities. It’s the beginning of something without finality…..endless beginnings and no (forced or fed) conclusion.
What I learned through working in this series of non-finito paintings, is that when a painting is ‘perfect’ in its state of finishedness, there is nothing for us to do as the observer of it. Yet when it is unfinished, it gives the viewer a task. An interactive process takes place.
In non-finito paintings, there is an emptiness in the work and it is in this emptiness that we as the viewer are invited to construct our own story. We are afforded the psychological space to feel, to think, to imagine, to construct our own narrative, ask our own questions and even answer them too.
When we are an observer of finished art, we are very often not involved. But a non finito painting lures us into its world and forces us to partake. —We become the co-creator.