CHARLOTTE, N.C. — In the early 1950s through the 1980s, a group of 26 African-American artists known as the "Florida Highwaymen" used vivid and bright colors to display the beautiful Florida landscape.
From palm trees and sunsets to oceans and bright red Poinciana trees, the Florida Highwaymen's art brought the Sunshine State to life like no artists before or since.
They pained everything on inexpensive Upson board and then, on weekends, they would travel and sell their paintings to hotels, offices, businesses and individuals who appreciated their work. All of those paintings were sold for just $25 apiece.
Right now, many of their paintings are on display at the VAPA Center in Uptown Charlotte. They can be found in the Nine Eighteen Nine Studio Gallery, located at 700 North Tryon Street. Joanne Rogers, the founder of the Nine Eighteen Nine, knew about the amazing history of this group of artists and arranged to bring a collection of their original works to the Queen City.
Rogers contacted Canadian art collector Tony Hayton, who first became familiar with the Florida Highwaymen in 2000. He immediately began assembling paintings from most of the artists and it's his collection that's on display in Charlotte.
Just seeing these paintings is an accomplishment. Back in the 1950s, many galleries wouldn't exhibit works by Black artists. To get around this, the Highwaymen improvised a plan that had them traveling the roads of Florida. They would sell their creations from door to door or out of their cars. Their motto was, "A painting was not finished until it was sold."
Over the years, they created up to 250,000 works of art. In their heyday, paintings helped the Highwaymen pay their bills. Now, after seven decades, many of those creations are selling for tens of thousands of dollars.
Contact Larry Sprinkle at lsprinkle@wcnc.com and follow him on Facebook, X and Instagram.