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The emerging art market for highwaymen paintings have arrived over the past decade. Art that once sold for $25.00 or bought at a garage sale for a few dollars now fetches upwards of Several Thousand dollars. Highwaymen art collecting is both a rewarding and exciting field. This type of art is new enough so that collectors can still find bargains, yet old enough where the artists reputations have become established.

The highwaymen artists were a group of black Florida landscape artists from the Ft. Pierce area who sold their paintings during the 1950′s though 1980′s. Their paintings were designed for tourists, people on vacation as well as businesses and new homeowners. They painted colorful tropical scenes which depicted pristine Florida beaches and countryside.

The beginnings of the movement began when well known Florida artist A.E. Backus, now considered the dean of Florida landscape painters, had a meeting in 1954 with Harold Newton. Backus inspired Harold to paint Florida landscape scenes instead of the religious scenes Harold was currently painting. Harold Newton had a natural talent and was easily able to change his art to capture the tropical scenery. Harold taught his younger brother Sam Newton how to paint in his style and they created some of the best quality highwaymen art. Because Harold couldn’t find any gallery representation, he decided to sell his paintings door to door by driving up and down the Florida coast. Harold would sell the paintings out of the trunk of his car and by simply walking into businesses, stores and banks.

During 1955, one year after Harold Newton met A.E.’Bean’ Backus, Alfred Hair started receiving formal art lessons from Backus. Alfred learned some basic oil painting techniques from Backus. Alfred continued his lessons with Backus for about 2 years. By this time Harold had already found success with his marketing method of selling paintings door to door, traveling up and down Florida’s limited main highways. Although Alfred Hair didn’t aspire to paint in the exceptional quality as A.E. Backus or Harold Newton did, he saw an avenue for making money. Alfred took what he learned from Bean Backus, combined with the way Harold was selling his art and created mass produced Florida oil paintings. Alfred wasn’t looking to make great art, he was looking to make fast money from the thriving tourist market. Alfred had a vision and he enlisted the help of several friends to make paintings, build picture frames out of crown molding and market the product. Some of his framers even became painters.

Jim Fitch coined the name “Highwaymen” during a 1995 article he wrote about this group of 26 painters. The name fits perfectly but the number of painters is not set in stone. Some people claim they were part of the group, others say there was actually less then 26 painters and at least one wants no affiliation. Today several other Florida artists paint in the Highwaymen Style and even their art is finding a new Collectors Market. One thing is very clear, if it wasn’t for A.E. Backus, there wouldn’t be any Highwaymen or Highwaymen style art. Now that you know how the Highwaymen Art Movement began, the best way to collect it is to buy the best painting you can afford from the artist who has a good reputation for quality work. Study their work and see what aspects about it you like. For instance, Do you like brush strokes or palette knife work?… or What’s the condition of the board? Select the artist(s) whose work developed in a solid, consistent way. Don’t just buy a highwaymen painting because of the highwaymen name, buy it based on the strength of the painting. A quality painting is an investment which will always retain it’s value and appreciate in the future.

Mark Ralph
http://www.articlesbase.com/art-articles/collecting-florida-highwaymen-art-690118.html

I need to get a painting ready by Monday, and I had the glorious idea of doing it with oil paints that take forever to dry. I know, I know; I should have planned it out better, but this is the hand I got dealt. Anyone know a way of getting it dry in two days?

blow dry it.

A short clip of artist kenneth john’s DVD on how to instruction of basic oil painting with painting/palette knives.

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Here is a lesson in oil painting techniques for an ocean wave. Please toggle to full screen for maximum detail. For more information, please visit http://www.wilsonbickford.com Producesd by obsidiancv- http://www.obsidiancustomvideo.com

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I recently finished an oil painting on a 16X20 inch stretched canvas (not a canvas panel), and I need to frame it. This is NOT one of those thick gallery canvases. I believe it’s like a half inch or quarter inch thick. Does anyone know of an online dealer that sells frames to fit canvases?

Thanks loads!

You can buy frames for that size canvas at hobby lobby or Michael’s. Way cheaper than a custom made shop. Hobby lobby has them 50% off every other week. And this week they are on sale.

To frame the canvas, you simply slip the painting into the frame from the back as usual. A piece of paper is stuck on the back to ‘tidy up’ the back of the canvas and stop dust collecting in it. If the frame isn’t as deep as the canvas, you’ll see part of the canvas’ edge if you’re looking from the side.

You can buy clips for attaching a frame to a canvas easily.

You can also buy latttice at the hardware store and paint it any color that suits your painting. This is the cheapest way!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcAzJpnRNr0

Santa Barbara is famous for its summer fog. This morning the sun came up just as the fog was burning off..

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I have to admit that in digital photography I personally have been a laggard. I have two traditional film cameras – a vintage manual focus Nikon and a Canon Rebel, which is a newer model equipped with auto focus. Up until recently, I’ve been heroically resisting the temptation of trying a digital camera, although each of my kids has had one for years now. But a few days ago, my father gave me one of his – a mid-priced Olympus – because he didn’t like the menus. I’ve decided to give it a try and I was surprised I actually like it.

I take a lot of pictures so obviously the first thing I loved about it is that it had no film. I also got two large memory cards from my father along with the camera and I never run out of film. I no longer have to pay for developing photos that I don’t even like. Actually, I don’t develop photos at all. And now that I’m able to see them on the spot, I can delete the ones that turn out wrong and free up space for new ones. I take hundreds of pictures and this helps me improve my technique and get better results. I can still keep the things I liked about traditional photography as my camera lets me select film speed and worry about shutter speed/aperture combinations. This means that I can still use my photographic skills, which is a very good thing. I also love that I don’t have to wait for days to see how the pictures turned out like.

Another thing I love about digital photos is the fact that you can edit them later. I haven’t purchased Photoshop yet, though I plan to buy the Elements program soon. For now I just use Picasa, which is free, and my PhotoDeluxe application which came with the scanner. Even with these basic programs I can still change the photos to a great extent. I sometimes have problems with the exposure because I don’t always notice backlighting. Luckily, poor exposure can be easily corrected afterwards, and the same thing you can do with red eyes or excessive tint.

You can also adjust contrast, sharpen focus and warm up colors. Cropping is another tool I use very often. It helps me remove parts of the background or excess sky. I can even transform a landscape photo into a close-up if I remove a large part of it. You also have a lot of special effects. You can transform your photo into an oil painting, add filters, neon, glow – just set your imagination free.

When I’m all set, I can send those photos I really like to a processing service. With Picasa you have an option to send your photos to a processor over the Internet and you will get the printed photos into your mail. Or you can upload the pictures to a website, use them in a blog or email them to your friends. Having so much control over your photos is just great. If you haven’t already switched to digital photography, you should think about it. It is a real blessing.

Alex Don
http://www.articlesbase.com/digital-photography-articles/a-few-great-things-about-digital-photography-718378.html

Ive never done an oil painting before and i started one yesterday for a civil war project due next tuesday. Its been drying for the last 24 hours but is still wet. How long will it take for it to be completely dry?

Next time try a fast drying medium like Liquin Original or Japan Drier.

I make it long time ago.

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