There have been many changes to this railroad bridge - the tracks are gone - the paper mill is gone and the sulfur pile is gone. 

Note the strong "S" shape from the foreground up through the bridge - the light standard on the left foreground is almost animated into an onlooker, it's verticality pulling against the reddish curve of the tracks.  

The stresses in the composition are held in place by a veritcal / horizontal grid formed by  the intersecting lamppost and railing in the foreground. 

It is fascinating to compare the photo to the painting to see how the artist poeticized a common scene. 
(by keith)

"great sheets of silver are torn from the veins of the earth - such was the birth place of Cobalt in Northern Ontario - a mud drenched company mining town.  

Mr Flood dips into his basket of metaphors and uses the passing storm motif, forcing us to follow him  upward  through colour and character to rises above the blood,  sweat and toil drenched shanty-town below. 
 
 
 
 

Site Sketch: Charcoal on Paper 1938~1939 (ref-143) 

It is always facinating to find an artists site sketch and compare it to the worked up  painting. Thanks to Mr. Flood's son John, we have that rare opportunity. 
(by keith) 
 
 
 
 

"Cobalt" 
circa 1940 
Watercolour on Paper 
15.5in x 18in (ref-101) 
Family Collection 
 

We have two paintings each done from the same source sketch and . each one different in character. This is a very interesting find for students of art. 
 
 

Hogs Back has always been  a popular picnic area On warm spring and summer days hundreds of people gather to sit on the rocks dangleing  their feet into the cool rushing water. 

This watercolour just radiates sunlight hitting the rocks and bouncing off winters ice. It takes incredable skill to obtain this effect. Mr. Flood has once again created a brilliant watercolour in a masters medium. 
(by keith)

This water-colour compared to the "Sunlite Rocks"  water-colour is more spontaneous in it's treatment - having a quick on site sketch quality. 

The quick fluid washes and certainty of the brush strokes reinforces the plein-air feeling and gives us an insight into this painters keen eye and quick mind.  

I would interpret this to be a site sketch. 
(by keith)

Another very rapidly executed water-colour showing absolute mastery of water-colour effects. 

You can feel a chill in the wind and the wetness of the water - all achieved with out resorting to photo realism which appeals to the eye and not to the soul . Mr. Flood has given us another great water-colour. 

I would interpret  this to be a site sketch. 
(by keith)

This water-colour retains much of the spontinaity shown in the site sketch below. 

The small street light hanging from the second-post-in marks the center of the composition. This was a tendency on the part of some artists of the period.  

Notice how the dark shed on the right side counterbalances the mass on the left. In the site sketch below he gave more prominence to the towers on the right and less to the shed and less to the mass on the left. 

The subject matter and it's rendering is reflective of his period and the Group of  Seven members he sketched with. 

Site Sketch:  
Charcoal on Paper  
Argentite St. Cobalt 
1938 
18in by 24in (ref-174) 

It is always facinating to find an artists site sketch and compare it to the worked up  painting. Thanks to Mr. Flood's son John, we have that rare opportunity. 
(by keith)

A water-colour showing absolute mastery of effects. 
This painting was exhibited: 
1939 - New York World's Fair 
1939 - National Gallery of Canada 
1939 - Ontario Society of Artists, Art Gallery of Ontario 
1940 - Exposition des "Confreres du Caveau", Ottawa 
1946 - Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour, Art  Gallery of Ontario 
1947 - Wilfrid Flood Memorial Exhibit, Ottawa 
2000 - Carleton University Art Gallery 

(by keith&john)

There is something about this water-colour that calls to mind a child-hood memory of a warm summer afternoon - when the sun suddenly goes behind a cloud and a slight cooling fills the air. 

Mr. Flood once more touches my soul with his water-colour mastery. 
(by keith)

Woven into the composition of this painting is Wilfrid Flood's friend and fellow artist Frank Hennessey - stoking the fire - was to meet an untimely death a few months after this painting was completed. 

Although Mr. Flood has followed the traditional method of composition; foreground, middle ground; background, the left side of the snow bank in the foreground has a vertical stopping tendency which twists into  more horizontal diagonal features on the right foreground  - providing the eye with a path to enter the scene and forming the boundary of a circular motif. 
(by keith)

An excellent water-colour, this type of  draughtsmanship is no longer available on the market. His rendering of the boards and logs hint at his art training in England. 

The graphic has been slightly enhanced to catch the freshness of the scene for electronic presentation. 

It has the feel of a studio painting 
it would be interesting to see the site sketches. 
(by keith)

Summer of 1940 - the war years. 
Mr Flood has caught the outdoor atmosphere of camping in the bush. The tent not only symbolizes our relationship to nature but also our dependence upon a complex infrastructure to maintain life. The tenor of the paiting, in relation to the historical period in which it was painted,  reinforces the artists tendency to live in a  world within a world. 
(by keith)

We are by now aware that Mr. Flood is an experienced painter. 

In this painting there is something about the quality and colour of the smoke rising from the stack that touches me deeply. 

The graphic has been slightly enhanced to catch the freshness of the scene for electronic presentation. 
 

(by keith)