James Flood
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Born on the fourth of July in Philadelphia, PA, James Flood has been sketching and painting from the time he was able to hold a crayon. Restless and distracted at school, he stubbornly persisted in developing his talent, much to the dismay of his family. Often he escaped his studies and instead traversed the local creeks and waterways of Philadelphia to navigate the ship models he built in stolen hours. Today, this dogged loyalty to his art is manifested in the staggering amount of work that he has produced.
Joining the Navy in 1967, Jim served on the LAFFEY, the WRIGHT, and then as quartermaster on the U.S.S. NEW JERSEY. This was a dream come true. Captured on film from a recent visit to the U.S.S. NEW JERSEY, a reminiscent Jim slouches against the wall of the fifth deck room where he had formerly spent much of his free time painting and playing the piano. Apparently, not even a war could deter Jim from his passions, and the image from one of his works painted during this passage was used as the end covers for the U.S.S. NEW JERSEY history book. The painting itself remains at the Naval Historical Museum in Washington, D.C.
Jim's work is on display at the Naval Institute in Annapolis, the Wiley Post Museum in Oklahoma City, the Olympia Memorial in Philadelphia, the Battleship Alabama in Mobile, the Biscayne Bay Harbor Pilots Association in Miami, the Washington Historical Museum, the Queen Mary, the Mystic Seaport, The U.S.S. Texas, the U.S.S. New Jersey, and the Historical Museum of South Florida, as well as on the bridges of many cruise liners.
Jim's art has appeared in the Naval Institute's Naval History Magazine, Steam Boat Bill, the Journal for the Steamship Historical Society of America, Pictorial Histories, Sea Classics Magazine, Preston's, and Military History Magazine.
His paintings have been used in the sets of the 20th Century Fox film Speed Two and at a Memphis Exhibition on the Titanic in 1997, as well as on the set of Frasier. New Florida on WPBS ran a piece in February of 2002 displaying his artwork and lifestyle.
In 1996 the Duke of Edinburgh invited him aboard the Royal Yacht Britannia to present his painting of the yacht to the Duke’s Trust. Jim’s more recent works include a series of seven paintings for the Queen Mary II.