PULSE The Magazine
of Mount Dora, Eustis and Tavares

The Highwaymen

Keepers of a Vanishing Florida Legacy

by Mari Henninger
photography by Marc Vaughn

Fort Pierce offered few opportunities for blacks. Most worked in the groves or tomato packing houses for dollars a day. But that began to change when A.E. Backus, a famous Florida landscape artist, started taking young black artists under his wing in the 1950s. Backus's kindness was unheard of during that racially charged period in Fort Pierce's history. Florida's post- Civil War Jim Crow laws were in full force, limiting where blacks could live, what beaches they could use, where they could sit in movie theaters, and relegating them to the back door of most retail establishments. But "Beanie," as Backus was known by friends in Fort Pierce, went his own way. His home was open to anyone, black or white, rich or poor, who was interested in painting, jazz or good conversation.

Jack O'Connor remembers hanging out in Beanie's kitchen with a group of friends almost every weekend when he was in high school. He says Beanie was truly a unique individual who liked to hear what young people had to say, frequently trying to guide them as they made their way into the world. While visiting, Jack often saw a group of young black artists painting in Backus's studio. He learned much later that these fellow beneficiaries of Beanie's largesse had gained fame as the legendary Highwaymen artists.

Harold Newton was the first of the many black artists Backus influenced and supported. Following Backus's advice, the young artist began painting Florida landscapes rather than the religious scenes he'd been painting on black velvet. Newton, a talented artist, observed Backus's style, followed his advice and soon began producing gallery-worthy paintings. But since no gallery would represent a black man, Newton took to the streets, successfully peddling his paintings door-to- door. Newton's success set a precedent that encouraged the Highwaymen who followed him.

Alfred Hair built on Newton's foundation, igniting the Highwaymen movement through his charisma, generosity and entrepreneurial brilliance. Although he was extremely talented and formally trained through lessons with Backus, Hair knew a black man's art could never command high prices. Following Newton's lead, he began creating and selling $25 landscapes painted on inexpensive Upson board and framed with cheap wood molding. Though successful compared to his friends, he had higher aspirations: first buying a Cadillac, then becoming a millionaire.

Realizing his income was limited by the number of paintings he could produce, Hair developed rapid painting techniques that allowed him to turn out 30 to 40 paintings a day. Always generous, he shared his methods with his friends, first with James Gibson, Roy McLendon, and Livingston Roberts, then later with an ever expanding group of acquaintances who sought access to his approach.

Once his friends had mastered the craft, Hair inspired them through friendly competition, creating acommunity which is largely responsible for painting and selling as many as 200,000 Highwaymen paintings during the 1950s, '60s and '70s. But while the Highwaymen were both artists and salesmen, their first priority was painting their way out of poverty.

In addition to local people and businesses, Florida tourists were a prime market for Highwaymen paintings. Tourists had always purchased postcards, but there were no postcards of the backcountry vistas that were opened to them with the completion of the Miami to Fort Pierce leg of Florida's turnpike in 1957. The Highwaymen paintings filled that void. Visitors learned that Florida was more than beaches and palm trees. They were enchanted by the freshwater marshes with hammocks of trees, prairies of saw palmetto and pine and broad rivers winding through the countryside, all of which could now be viewed from the window of a car. The Highwaymen's paintings captured the untouched beauty that called to visitors as they crept through the more than 100 turnpike stoplights between Miami and Fort Pierce.

Sadly, the heart of the Highwaymen movement was lost when Hair died in a barroom shooting in 1970 at the age of 29. Though most of the Highwaymen continued painting, interest in their work dwindled as highways were replaced by Interstates, cheap painting supplies like Upson board disappeared and tastes changed. Only a few were able to support themselves by painting alone. Most, like Mary Ann Carroll, who started painting houses as well as landscapes, found other ways to support themselves and their families.

As interest in Highwaymen paintings waned, many were given to thrift shops, relegated to the attic or simply thrown out with the trash. Jack O'Connor tells of rescuing a Sam Newton painting from a Fort Pierce beach motel scheduled for demolition. He'd never heard of the artist or the Highwaymen, but liked the painting because it reminded him of Fort Pierce. The owner sold it to him for $40. He's since learned it's valued at more than $2,000.

The fortunes of the Highwaymen began to improve in 1995 when James Fitch, a Florida art historian and collector, published an article about them in the Winter/ Spring issue of Antiques and Art Around Florida. When he was piecing together their history he began seeing them as a group rather than as individuals. Their practice of traveling the highways of eastern Florida in search of buyers led him to christen the group with the name "Highwaymen."

But it was not until 2001 when Gary Monroe, a Florida photographer and author, published a book about their art and lives* that interest in the Highwaymen gained the momentum that ultimately led to the 2004 induction of 26 of the artists, 25 men and one woman, into the Florida Artists Hall of Fame. The associated publicity renewed interest in the Highwaymen's art, spawning a large group of Highwaymen hunters and collectors. Margie Salyer and Randy Burgener, innkeepers at the Heron Cay Bed and Breakfast in Mount Dora, were two of the artists' earliest collectors.

Margie began collecting Highwaymen paintings in the mid-'90s. Inspired by childhood memories of seeing the Highwaymen selling paintings from the trunks of their cars, she began collecting their paintings, and eventually Randy began to share her enthusiasm. They now own more than 80 Highwaymen paintings which they display throughout Heron Cay

.

At Margie and Randy's suggestion, a group of Mount Dora innkeepers sponsored the first Mount Dora Highwaymen art show in August 2006. By that time, most of the Highwaymen were painting again. Since they had sold their earlier work as it was painted, few benefited from the escalation in value of their original paintings. Most were still painting to help support themselves. While Mary Ann Carroll originally painted to support her seven children, by 2006 she painted to support her grandchildren as well. Fortunately, though most Highwaymen now paint on canvas and no longer sell paintings for $25, their new work is still relatively affordable.

The next Mount Dora Highwaymen Art Show will be held January 8-9 in the Donnelly Park Building in downtown Mount Dora. Twelve out of the 18 living Highwaymen will be in attendance, selling as well as exhibiting their paintings. In addition to the exhibit, the show offers visitors a unique opportunity to talk with the artists and hear each one's take on the living history they now represent.

Randy Burgener, who organizes the twice yearly Highwaymen Art Shows in August and January, says that over the years a special bond has formed between the Highwaymen and Mount Dora. The Mount Dora show not only displays and sells their work, it celebrates who the artists are as people, and their unique contribution to Florida art and history.

At a dinner honoring the Highwaymen during the last Mount Dora Highwaymen Art Show in August, I chatted with James Gibson, one of the five original Highwaymen. His work hangs in the White House and the Florida Governor's Mansion and is collected by a number of celebrities including Steven Spielberg who used one of his paintings in his 2002 movie Catch Me if You Can. Despite his many accomplishments, James Gibson is a charming and soft-spoken man. He told me that most of the landscapes he paints now exist only in memory. So as he and his fellow Highwaymen paint, they are not only sharing their memories of Florida's vanishing natural beauty, they are creating a legacy for generations to come.

The Highwaymen, Florida's African American Landscape Painters, 2001.

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