<h1 style="color: #cab43c;">The Highwaymen Portraitist</h1>
David Rivera is a poet, a breeder of exotic birds, a winemaker, an avid amateur billiards player, … and an artist.  He has painted a wonderful series of Highwaymen portraits during the last 20 years.  This is the story …..

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David was born in a rural mountainous area near San Juan, Puerto Rico.  Raised in a little shack with no water and no electricity his family migrated to New York City in 1959, to the Lower East Side of Manhattan.  With only his mother, and his 6 brothers and sisters, life was rough. Even in those early days, David remembers sketching, and also remembers entering a city-wide competition in the eighth grade.   It was the beginning of his art career.

<span class="except-p">The Highwaymen Collector (“THC”):&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; When did you move to Florida and how did you get started as an artist?</span>
<span class="dr-red">David Rivera (“DR”):</span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;   I moved to St. Petersburg, Florida in 1976 and in 1977 I took up the brush and painted for the first time. I had gone to an artist's home and his work inspired me. I looked at the work closely and I could see brush strokes and I said to myself, I could do this. So I went home and did a seascape. And it turned out pretty good.

Then I started to raise birds and I went to this big bird place and I paid for cockatoos with a 24 by 30 canvas. He gave me $150 for it in 1976. So that was the beginning of my art. I started painting and I started to get better and better and never had a lesson in my life. That's how I started and got to where I am today.  Today I have painted over 2000 paintings and I believe I've sold more than 1500 of them.  I have about 500 in my possession and my work has travelled all over the country.

Pineapple Pattie, the famed art and antique dealer in Ft. Pierce, sold them for me for many years.  And for about five years I had an antique shop where I would paint while I was at the shop. Then I would sell my art in the shop as well.  I love Florida and I've been painting Florida scenes since about 1992.<br><br>
<span class="thc-golden">THC:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Can you tell us when and how you first became aware of the Highwayman.</span>
<span class="dr-red">DR:</span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; My antiques shop was in Fort Myers and there were about 14 antique shops then. Of course, most antique dealers have a piece of art or two, and which don't have to be expensive. People are always looking for paintings. At the time, I rented my house from a friend, who also painted, and he said to me one day there was a group of interesting black artists that live in Fort Pierce and he grew up with them. He went on to say -  I believe that these guys are gonna be famous one day,  so if you see any of their paintings, pick them up, and he gave me a list.  I started looking for them and I found a few.  I remember I found one quickly in an antique mall for $75. It was a McClendon poinciana with a house and it was a really nice painting and I kept it for a while.
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<h4 style="color: #cab43c;">Roy McLendon</h4>
<span class="dr-red">DR:</span> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Sure enough, the Highwaymen group did become famous and because I was an artist doing Florida scenes, around the year 2000,  I started to do some shows with them. We would exhibit in St. Peter's in the Coliseum several times a year. They would have all the Highwaymen there and because I was a friend of the promoter, I was the only artist in there other than the Highwaymen.
It was kind of cool to be in the same room with all them selling their paintings.

And I was selling my paintings as well. Mary Ann Carroll and Sylvester Wells were bringing the easels and selling their paintings on the spot. Most of the artists would come in with 30 or 40 paintings each, and they had just about all of them sold by the end of the day. Gary Monroe put out a book on the Florida Highwaymen and then they all got inducted in the Florida Hall of Fame.
I was then invited to do an individual exhibit in the Capitol Building in Florida. And my art kind of took off after that. I started selling a lot of pieces and then I was fortunate enough to be invited back for another exhibit in 2008, and then another in 2012. I was able to exhibit paintings in Senator Rick Scott's office and the Cabinet meeting room in the hallways of the Capitol.

I used to talk to the Highwaymen about it and they were disappointed that they hadn’t exhibited in the Capitol yet. I gave them the information and they got in touch with the Capital and the next thing you know Gibson was exhibiting there and then Lewis, and I think today, most of them have exhibited in the Capitol Complex.

<span class="thc-golden">THC: &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;David, let me ask you, who was the first Highwaymen that you met in person?</span>
<span class="dr-red">DR:</span> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; I went to meet Backus with my brother (not strictly a Highwaymen as you know).
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<h4 style="color: #cab43c;">A. E. Backus</h4>
I believe that when we found out about him and that he was still alive we made the trip.  We joined a big gathering that they had in Fort Pierce in a restaurant. There was like 12, maybe 14 Highwaymen there.  I'd say I got the closest to Backus to start with. And probably Mary Ann Carroll because I actually went to her house and I did four or five shows with her. I would say R. Louis and Mary Carroll were the artists that I got to know best.
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<h4 style="color: #cab43c;">Mary Ann Carroll</h4>
<span class="thc-golden"> THC:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Obviously. You never met Alfred Hair. I don't think anybody has but of the other 25 highway men. Do you think you've met them all? or are there some that you've never met?<span>
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<h4 style="color: #cab43c;">Alfred Hair</h4>
<span class="dr-red">DR:</span> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; You’re right.  When I started collecting Highwaymen, Alfred Hair had died already.  I never kept track, but I knew about 16 Highwaymen at the most. When I started doing shows I got to know Charles Walker and Sam Newton quite well.  Sam did not want to be very associated with the group, so you rarely saw him  in exhibits with the other Highwaymen artists.
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<h4 style="color: #cab43c;">Sam Newton</h4>
<span class="dr-red">DR:</span> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Johnny Daniels was always very laid back and often wore a French beanie.  He was quiet and soft spoken.  I always admired his art because he went outside the norm to put wildlife into his paintings,
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<h4 style="color: #cab43c;">Johnny Daniels</h4>
<span class="thc-golden">THC: &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; How did you actually paint the portraits?</span>
<span class="dr-red">DR:</span> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; I don't recall if I started with Beanie Bacchus or Mary Ann Carroll because I knew them both well. Sometimes I used photographs for my portraits because many of the Highwaymen were sort of elusive and nobody had done pictures of them before. And unless you took a picture of them yourself, there was nothing available. For my paintings of Hair and Harold Newton I only had tiny photographs to work from.
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<h4 style="color: #cab43c;">Harold Newton</h4>
<span class="thc-golden">THC: &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Okay, very interesting. Have you thought about doing additional portraits of some of the others that you did not yet paint?</span>
<span class="dr-red">DR:</span> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Yes, I will do all of them but right now the motivation is not there. Because the paintings are taking up room in my house - to do more would require more room!

<span class="thc-golden">THC: &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; What plans do you have for this collection of portraits? Are you planning to try to sell them as a collection or sell them individually or keep them?   What are your thoughts about what you're going to do with them?</span>
<span class="dr-red">DR:</span> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; I have no specific plans now, but it would be good to get them out there so people can see them. I posted them years ago, but not sure that any of them have seen. Today, with the Highwaymen becoming so popular, they should get more exposure.  I always thought that maybe the families of the Highwaymen might have an interest in them.
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<h4 style="color: #cab43c;">Willie Daniels</h4>
<span class="thc-golden">THC:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; I'm quite certain there will be interest in these paintings once they're exposed. I hope this article is the start of that exposure.</span>
<span class="dr-red">DR:</span> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Maybe even a museum with ties to the Highwaymen would be interested in these.  Wherever they take me !The Highwaymen legacy is just starting!