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An exhibit of works by the fabled Highwaymen artists sends viewers back to Florida's past.
By JORGE SANCHEZ
Published January 28, 2005
The Highwaymen started as roadside painters in the 1950s, creating vividly colored Florida landscapes for a quick buck. Through determination and productivity, they became successful in financial and artistic terms.
Highwaymen art captures a Florida sense of place that makes their works collectibles, and the current Highwaymen exhibit at the Heritage Museum is an inspiring assemblage of their work.
The three dozen pieces, on loan from the Orange County Regional History Center, portray some of the group's most evocative images as well as some of the history behind the painter.
Artists represented include the Highwaymen's founder and spiritual leader Alfred Hair, James Gibson, Al Black, Mary Ann Carroll, Willie Daniels, Robert Lewis and others.
The Highwaymen began their artistic movement in Fort Pierce in the 1950s. Their motto was "No painting is finished until it is sold." They worked quickly, with an artist often resting several canvasses against a roadside fence while working on all of them in an assembly line fashion.
Gibson, Carroll and Roy McLendon will attend an artists' reception at noon Saturday on the first floor of the Heritage Museum.
A speakers' program on March 12 includes Highwaymen artists Robert Lewis Sr. and his son Robert Lewis Jr. and Mary Ann Carroll (the only known female member of the group).
Highwaymen paintings depict a Florida most have never seen except in their subtropical fantasies, an unspoiled landscape with winding, sandy roads, marshes with lone palm trees, deserted beaches and wooden fishing shacks.
The original works were painted on cheap, thin wood - Upson board, a roofing material - and the frames were gaudy and pieced together with little more than hope.
But to collectors, those details add to the lore - and value - of the Highwaymen paintings.
Jorge Sanchez covers arts and entertainment in Citrus County. Call 860-7313 or e-mail sanchez@sptimes.com
If you goWHAT: The Highwaymen art exhibit at the John Murray Davis Gallery at the Old Courthouse Heritage Museum, One Courthouse Square, Inverness. An artists' reception will begin at noon Saturday on the first floor of the museum. Highwaymen artists Mary Ann Carroll, Roy McLendon and James Gibson are scheduled to attend.
HOURS: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday.
COST: Admission is free.
INFORMATION: Call 341-6436.
[Last modified January 28, 2005, 00:20:16]
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