Loss of the Flora S. Nickerson, 1993

Private Collection, St. John's, Newfoundland

David Blackwood came from a family with a long seafaring history. Growing up in Newfoundland, the artist spent his childhood summers fishing off the Labrador coast aboard his father’s schooner, the Flora S. Nickerson. Blackwood’s sharp focus on Newfoundland's history and culture positions his body of work in a unique space within the Canadian art historical dialogue. In his signature grand narrative style, Blackwood's aquatint etching "Loss of the Flora S. Nickerson" poses questions of one's scope and scale within their environment. The rich monochromatic blue pigments of this work highlight a dramatic tone to the story unfolding. The whale in the foreground arches protectively around the younger. In the distance, the Flora S. Nickerson flounders in the unforgiving waters as its crew and passengers row to safety. The sorrow of the loss is ingrained in the solemn down-turned expressions of the men aboard the lifeboat. Mirroring what is taking place below water, a father protectively holds his young boy above water. The sublime power of the composition highlights the notion of one's mortality within a moment of loss, compassion and comfort.