Filed Under: "drawings"

Flora loved animals, and over the years he created countless images of cats, dogs, birds, horses, fish, and a few alligators. This previously unpublished gaggle of cats, rendered with pen and ink, dates from the 1990s, after Flora had retired from the commercial illustration profession and was spending his retirement creating new works every day. We are considering issuing this as a fine art mini-print.

The Panic is On, pen & ink, 1990s, unpublished(No relation to the Nick Travis 1955 LP cover)

“Oldtown,” pen and ink drawing, late 1930s, unpublished work. Oldtown (or Old Town?) is presumably a neighborhood in Cincinnati, where Flora lived at the time he rendered this drawing. We were unable to locate this community in a rudimentary search on our Google Machine. If any locals have the answer, please leave a comment below. 

Untitled pencil drawings for unknown project, discovered in 1960s sketchbook

One hundred years ago today, James Royer Flora was born in the quaint village of Bellefontaine, Ohio. Above, possibly making its first public appearance, is the artist’s earliest extant work, a pen & ink with pencil (or charcoal) entitled First Steps, dated June 8, 1935, around the time Flora enrolled at the Art Academy of Cincinnati. Whether the work is intended to be autobiographical shall forever remain a mystery. To observe the centennial, we have two…

Untitled pen & ink drawing, 1942 (reproduced in our  second book, The Curiously Sinister Art of  Jim Flora)

Untitled ink on paper, 1942, first published in The Curiously Sinister Art of Jim Flora (2007, Fantagraphics).

Pen & ink on heavy stock, 1990s, from the archives. Previously unpublished and uncirculated work.

Our latest Jim Flora limited edition fine art print launches today. We’ve dubbed the untitled, undated black and white work Rowayton Creature Tableau because of the strange figures populating the streets of this seaside Connecticut village (the artist’s adopted hometown). The previously uncirculated and unpublished pen & ink with watercolor drawing was discovered in the artist’s collection. We’ve analyzed the technique and determined that it reflects the 1970s style of caricature commonly found in Flora’s…

Pen & ink, 1992, discovered in sketchpad. Like most Flora works of the 1990s, this cityscape has never been published or publicly viewed.

Previously uncirculated pen and ink from sketchbook, 1995. From the 1920s to his death in 1974, Duke Ellington saw musicians come and go. Saxophonist/clarinetist Harry Carney (b. Boston, 1910) devoted 46 years to performing and recording with the maestro. The trusty sideman occasionally conducted the orchestra in Duke’s absence. After Ellington’s death, Carney was quoted as saying, “This is the worst day of my life. Without Duke I have nothing to live for.” Four months…

Provincetown 7/57, pencil drawing from sketchbook