Both Gibson and Carroll belong to the group of eight artists who were the first to develop the Highwaymen style and way of life. Once word of their success spread, other artists in the surrounding area began to emulate their work. For some in this newer wave of Highwaymen, painting supplemented a career.
Photo by Karen Laughter
Carroll relied on her paintings to provide income
for her and her seven children.
One such Highwayman is Willie C. Reagan, a retired high school art teacher in Vero Beach, about 15 miles north of Ft. Pierce.
After teaching during the days, Reagan would paint Monday through Wednesday and frame on Thursday. On Saturday, he would load the station wagon with 10 or 12 paintings and drive from door to door at new housing developments. He maintained this routine from the late 1960s until 1980.
“I didn’t sell any wet,” he says. “I had a job. I wasn’t going to go hungry.” Regardless of when they started or how crucial painting was to their survival, in 1994, everything changed for each of the Highwaymen.
That’s when Jim Fitch, a former art buyer and the current director of the Museum of Florida Arts and Culture, began to trace the roots of contemporary Florida art. His search lead to the Ft. Pierce area and the traveling artists’ distinctive style of landscape painting. In an article for Antiques & Art Around Florida, Fitch coined the term “Highwaymen.” “That’s the time we let the cat out of the bag,” Fitch says.
The article generated mainstream media attention, and in 2002, a book telling the Highwaymen story with a collection of their work attracted more attention. In 2004, all 26 Highwaymen were inducted into the Florida Artists’ Hall of Fame.
Margie Hampton, an associate at the Grant Antique Mall, a Brevard County dealer that boasts more than 300 Highwaymen paintings, has seen the value of Highwaymen art skyrocket in her 10 years at the mall. Eight years ago, she bought a river scene by Highwayman Sam Newton for $125. At the time, she wouldn’t tell her husband how much she paid for it. Today, the painting is valued at $1,800.
“He knows what I paid now,” she says, adding that she’ll probably never get rid of it. “It’s beautiful.”
The value of the Highwaymen paintings lies in more than their aesthetic appeal, however. The surge in their popularity is partly due to an awakened sense of pride in the state’s history and culture, Fitch says. Floridians are fighting to preserve their heritage, he says, and Highwaymen art is a part of it.