Filed Under: "ships"

Detail (about two-thirds of the complete work) of an untitled, unpublished tempera on board, ca. mid-1960s. The collection contains a number of similarly composed maritime paintings from this period, though colors and figures vary. If you have our recent book, The Sweetly Diabolic Art of Jim Flora, compare this setting with Salt Pond—Block Island on page 54.

This cutaway view of a cruise ship affords a glimpse into cabin and deck activities—some naughty, some nice. The undated, unpublished pen & ink on tablet paper probably dates from Flora’s “late ship period” around 1988-90, when he was transitioning away from maritime motifs and back to music, architecture, portraits, and landscapes. His large acrylic ship canvases rendered during the 1980s were more lifelike than the cartoonish styles for which he’d been renowned as a…

This ship is part of a large untitled tempera harbor montage painted by Flora on a slab of masonite around 1951. How “large”? How much of a “part”? After isolating the above detail, I copied and pasted it horizontally and vertically over the full original to figure out how many elements this size could fit in the complete image field. Outcome: the above detail represents 1/52nd of the entire work.

Middle of three tiers from sketchbook tempera, ca. 1963-65

Two new Jim Flora silk screen prints are available at JimFlora.com. Both are based on untitled, undated temperas from the mid-1960s, which were discovered pages apart in a sketchpad. We informally call this one Entangled Couple: And this one has been nicknamed Canoe Critters: Each was produced in a numbered edition of 100 by Aesthetic Apparatus, in Minneapolis, and though the prints are color-matched, they can be purchased separately. (If you want both and use…

Undetermined media (framed, under glass): print with touch-up, or black tempera, ca. 1968, detail. Previous detail posted on August 20.

Pen & ink on sketch tablet paper, 1995. If you’re wondering where Conakry is located, it’s on the coast of Wikistan.

Draft overlay, The Day the Cow Sneezed, 1957, found amid the James Flora Papers in the Dr. Irvin J. Kerlan Collection, University of Minnesota. Who was Dr. Kerlan?

This untitled tempera from the mid-1960s is currently in production as a silk-screen print by Aesthetic Apparatus, based in Minneapolis. It will be released with a companion print—different theme, but identical color palette. Both works, previously uncirculated, were discovered in a sketchbook in the Flora archives. We’ll post the other print shortly. Aesthetic Apparatus produced our Mambo For Cats and Pete Jolly Duo LP cover screen prints, as well as our Primer for Prophets series.

Undetermined media (framed, under glass): print with touch-up, or black tempera, ca. 1968, detail. Another detail posted on December 2.

detail, untitled tempera on paper found in sketchbook, ca. mid-1960s

We don’t change header images at JimFlora.com every week; headers change as often as you refresh the page. There are more than a dozen frisky images in random rotation, with two new ones added — and two old ones shelved — every couple of weeks. They don’t rotate in sequence; you might have to refresh 50X to view them all. There’s also a half-dozen footers, in case you’re inclined to scroll downward. Detail, Saturday Night…