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The Florida Highwaymen
Experience the art of the famous FLORIDA HIGHWAYMEN in Mount Dora during the last week of December and the first two weeks of January, 2012 and have a chance to WIN $300.00 Dora Dollars. For more information on the Art Walk and "Hunt for Highwaymen Paintings please visit: Florida Highwaymen Art Walk On January 14th & 15th, 2012 you can meet the artists in person. Florida Highwaymen Collaboration Banquet at Lakeside InnOn Saturay, January 14th you will have the RARE opportunity to dine with the artists at the Lakeside Inn while they collaborate on an original painting. The painting will go home with a lucky dinner guest! 
Florida’s historic landscape artists, known as The Florida Highwaymen, will be returning to picturesque Mount Dora for the 8th HIGHWAYMEN ART Show and Sale. On Saturday, January 14th, the popular Highwaymen artists will return to Mount Dora and display sell their art work on January 14th & 15th from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. inside and outside of the Donnelly Building in Donnelly Park, located in the center of Mount Dora. Visitors can enjoy the scenic renderings of Florida’s landscape expressed in the Classic Highwaymen art style. Participating in this event will be original Highwaymen; Al Black, James Gibson, Isaac Knight, Robert Lewis, Roy McLendon, Charles Walker, Willie Daniels, John Maynor, Charles "Chico" Wheeler with OTHERS to be announced. Admission, as before, is FREE!! This Winter Art Event is presented by Heron Cay Lakeview Bed & Breakfast, with co-sponsoring by the Mount Dora Area Chamber of Commerce, Visit Mount Dora(tm) and the City of Mount Dora; and sponsored in part by: Grand Rental Station - Mount Dora Community Trust - Sharp Design - WhatToDoInMountDora.com - Glasscat Design - PULSE Magazine. Printing provided by Lake County, Florida. Margie Salyer and Randy Burgener are coordinating this Highwaymen Show and Sale. A portion of the proceeds from the sale of Highwaymen art will be donated to the Restoration Fund for the Historic Mount Dora Train Station, the Home of the Chamber of Commerce. For additional information, please contact Randy Burgener by calling (352) 383-4050 or Toll Free at 1-888-437-6622. For lodging and other information please visit HeronCay.com. The 8th Florida Highwaymen Art event continues with artists displaying and selling their art. The following artists will be participating in the event:
Who are The Highwaymen?In the early 1950s through the 1980s a group of twenty-six African-American artists painted beautiful landscapes that displayed the serene, undeveloped Florida landscape of their time. Today these artists are known as the "Florida Highwaymen" and because of the tranquil scenes and history involved, their original paintings are highly demanded by collectors and enthusiasts. The Florida Highwaymen used vivid and bright colors in their paintings to display the beautiful untouched Florida landscape. They painted wind-bent palm trees, serene sunsets, churning oceans and bright red Poinciana trees. These paintings looked great on the walls of businesses and homes. One of the original Florida Highwayman, Alfred Hair, was introduced to a prominent white artist named A. E. "Bean" Backus in the mid 1950s. Under the direction of Mr. Backus, Alfred was encouraged to paint landscapes and realized that he could make a living doing it. Alfred encouraged several of his friends to begin painting as well, and soon the Florida Highwaymen became a sort of social group. The Highwaymen artists knew they could make a living painting, but they knew they had to be different. Mr. Backus was a prominent white artist and could sell his paintings for hundreds of dollars in galleries and shows; no gallery would show the work of unknown, self-taught African-Americans. Instead they painted from their garages and back yards on inexpensive Upson board and then on the weekends they would travel and sell their paintings to hotels, offices, businesses and individuals who appreciated the artwork for around $25 a piece. In the 1980s the Florida Highwaymen unofficially disbanded after consumer tastes changed. But because of a recent surge in demand for their work several of the original highwaymen have come back to painting. In the early 1990s an interest in "outsider art" or art which is created by artists who are outside mainstream society, developed in the art world and in 1995 an article was written for a journal by Jim Fitch who coined the group the "Highwaymen" because of their tactics of traveling I-95 and A1A to sell their artwork. Not long after this the New York Times wrote a review of a documentary about the Florida Highwaymen and two books on the group have been published since then, causing the value of Florida Highwaymen art to skyrocket. In 2004, the 26 original Florida Highwaymen were inducted into the Florida Artists Hall of Fame. The Highwaymen are credited for encouraging the beginning of the "Indian River School" and "Backus" art movements and have many followers, but these 26 individuals are the only true "Highwaymen." The twenty-six Florida Highwaymen artists are:
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| Other Mount Dora Events | About Mount Dora, Florida |