Flodman's art studies began at the Slöjdskolan (later the Technical School). At the same time, he received private lessons from both G. W. Palm and Oscar Törnå. From 1883 to 1886, he was a student at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. Among his fellow students were Gottfrid Kallstenius, Gerda Roosval-Kallstenius, Anton Genberg, Anselm Schultzberg, Carl Johansson Lotten Rönqvist, Ida Gisiko-Spärck, Hanna Pauli, and Hilma af Klint.
As a landscape painter, he was considered very talented. Already in 1884, the Stockholm Art Association purchased a painting from him, "Motif from Stadsgårdshamnen", and two more in the following two years. In 1886, he participated in the art exhibition in Gothenburg with a spring landscape during the inauguration of Valand's building. That same year, he was awarded the academy's medal for another spring landscape. The following year, he received the royal medal for an autumn landscape submitted to the academy. This great success was also his last. A cold contracted during outdoor studies in the winter of 1887 claimed his life at only 24 years old.
During his short artistic career, Flodman produced a series of finely tuned and modestly realistic landscape canvases, often depicting beach scenes. Most of the few works that Flodman completed are relatively small in format. All are painted "en plein air", i.e., in front of the motif. At the memorial exhibition in 1891, he was represented with 19 paintings, which largely constitutes his entire production. After his illness, he primarily devoted himself to graphic representations. He produced a total of 11 landscape etchings in small format, which are among the finest in Swedish etching art (G. Lamm, "Carl Flodman and his etchings", 1888). His "Parti av Köpingån" has been called "the jewel in Swedish graphics" ("Swedish graphics from three centuries", 1957).

A beach chair (German: Strandkorb, Danish: strandkurv) is a seating furniture for the beach, adapted to protect against sunlight, wind, rain, and sand. Beach chairs are particularly associated with the German Baltic and North Sea coasts, especially the island of Sylt. Beach chairs are also found in Denmark and other European countries, including the Danish islands of Fanø and Rømø.