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In the late 1950’s along the central East Coast of Florida a small group of African American artists started a business venture that wasn’t supposed to happen. The jobs available at the time for these artists were most likely in the orange groves picking fruit or other low paying minimum wage employment. This was the Jim Crow era in the south.
Twenty-six artists that were loosely associated and centered in the Vero Beach Ft. Pierce area eventually made up the group. They traveled the roads selling their artwork to business owners, real estate brokers, lawyer’s offices, banks and others along the way. In the mid 1990’s Jim Fitch coined the name The Highwaymen due to their sales method. They were Inducted into the Florida Artists Hall of Fame in 2004 and the Smithsonian permanent collection in Washington, DC, 2016.
The artists captured Florida’s natural beauty that is currently being compromised by development. The back woods scenes, breaking waves, palm lined beaches and river scenes are just a small part of what they created with the brush and palette knife. They were successful with 60+ years of painting. Interest in the Highwaymen artists and Art continues to grow.
“From the Street Corner to the Smithsonian”
The Highwaymen, Florida’s Landscape Artists
