The Highwaymen story started in 1950s, when a group of unknown but talented young African-American artists from Fort Pierce in Florida decided that closed doors of art galleries and shows should not stop them from doing what they loved to do and they started selling their art works door-to-door and from the back of their trucks throughout all the south-eastern coast of Florida to support themselves and their families.

The style of the Highwaymen paintings is very vivid, but relaxing at the same time. They painted mostly images of the Florida landscapes and their art was inspired by the work of well-known Florida artist Albert Ernest "Beanie" Backus. Alfred Hair, one of the Highwaymen, was one of the Backus' students. Yet most of the artists of the group were self-taught painters. It's not exactly clear how many paintings there are painted by the Highwaymen, but by one of the estimation is getting close to 200,000 pieces.

The Highwaymen were not so popular or known in the US or around the world at their days in 50s or 60s and the Highwaymen story might have been never told if not for Jim Fitch, Florida art collector and museum curator, who in the mid-90s got interested in the group and wrote an article where he first called them "The Highwaymen". Starting from that time, their popularity was growing continuously and in nowadays the work of the Highwaymen is much wanted by art collectors and enthusiasts.

The Highwaymen group was never an official association or a formal movement; they were all loosely connected by their style, purposes and intentions in life rather then by any kind of formal membership. Nevertheless in 2000, 26 artists were officially identified as the Highwaymen. Here is a complete list of the Highwaymen artists.

The Highwaymen story is not over; some of the Highwaymen are still painting and their works are getting a lot recognition and interest. Have a look at the current listings for Highwaymen paintings and see for yourself what the Highwaymen Art is.