Modern Art Challenge: Nuff's Project

Photo of a portion of Nuff's "Grey Haze" (above) 

During my first MoDeRn Art Challenge workshop for my Abstract Art class on Skillshare, my students continually amazed me with the diversity of their interests and the depth of their talent.

Today, I share with you the progress made by one of my students, Nuff, who is an graphic designer.  (Check out his outstanding portfolio and award-winning designs.)

Nuff's style cuts through the turbulence of modern life to achieve a streamlined, universal elegance.  He translated this same style into his fine art work in this course.

First, Nuff chose the deep themes of 

• Silence, 
• Solitude, and 
• Hope and Despair (especially their intersection).

Nuff's music choice, Joep Beving's "The Light She Brings," audibly resonate the themes he explored in his work.

Although I work in this class from a Kandinsky piece, I encourage students to explore other artists who speak to them.  Nuff focused his research on Mark Rothko and Sophie Pardo as reference influences on his project.  

  

Rothko

Pardo

Nuff used Liquitex Heavy Body Acrylics, but experimented with dilution and the use of other media in order to achieve the grey, aqua, and wintry blue tones he desired.

Nuff completed two pieces for this workshop.  One echoes the concentric circles of Kandinsky (above).

Nuff's second piece maintains a grey mist backdrop and adds simple, horizontal, and stark strokes in the foreground.

Nuff's works make strong statements that honor the spirit of Kandinsky, our reference artist, for this course.  Kandinsky thought and wrote about symbols and symbolism.  I think if he could watch our class at work, he would spend time talking to each student about what his or her symbols mean.  What fascinating conversations these would be!

I want to thank Nuff for his work in our class.  He generously wrote about his mental decisions.  I waited with anticipation to see the impact of these individual decisions on his final work.  The class benefited from understanding his processes.  Thank you, Nuff, for making our class a collegial, meaningful place - full of the free exchange of ideas.

If you want to a part of this class, be sure to enroll today before our next workshop begins on Sunday, March 27.