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Featured Work
Highwayman Florida Scene
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Harold NewtonPainting (EXTERIOR)
OUC’s Reliable Plaza
About the Artwork
OUC wanted a piece that illustrated the natural beauty of nature and particularly Florida since it was going to grace the building they labeled the "Greenest Building Downtown". No other group of artists represent Florida better than the Highwaymen and Harold Newton is one of the most celebrated of the group. This tranquil piece showing two herons in a quiet bend of a forest crowded river compliments the Cyprus trees in Reliable Plaza and the rain water cistern. It is four stories tall and is mounted on the park garage section of the building.
Andrew Spear and Charles Marklin of METRO Finishes painted this enlarged version of Newton’s original painting.
About the Artist
Harold Newton
Harold Newton is one of the original Highwaymen. Emerging in the late 1950s, a small group of self-taught African American artists working on the East Coast of Florida dedicated their talents and livelihoods to painting the Florida landscape. With encouragement from local artist A.E. “Beanie” Backus, these young Ft. Pierce artists developed their individual techniques and rendered idyllic waterscapes, backcountry marshes, and inlets with a raw beauty and mystique, which have become well-known vintage Floridian images. They painted on inexpensive Upson and Masonite boards, framed their paintings with crown molding, and traveled the highways and byways of Central Florida peddling their paintings out of the back of their cars, generally before the oils had even dried. From this marketing and sales strategy, their name “The Highwaymen” was derived. The value of “Highwaymen paintings” has soared in recent years. They are now considered highly collectible.
Did you know?
In Winter Park's Hannibal Square, there are two large artworks that were partially created through much community participation.
Discover Art in Central Florida!
For those who have eyes to see, there are hundreds of works of art around them.
This web site provides some information on many of those works of art that can
be regularly viewed in Orange County by any member of the public without an
admission fee. They are outside in public view, or located in an interior area
that is normally open to the public.
Look around this web site and find something that interests you. Then go see it
in person. The information you find here will add to the pleasure of exploring
public art in Central Florida.
If, in your travels around Orange County, you come across some public art that
is not listed here, please let us know so we can add it. If you are aware of
additional information about art or artist that is included here, again, please
let us know. Together we can make this an incredible resource for people seeking
to spice up their life through exploring art.