Highwaymen information 2010 update

Here's a you tube by a fairly credible appraiser, on TV in Palm Beach County. Looks like he knows what he's talking about.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpE_t7FX7wM

HOWEVAH...........................................

As confident, credible and as knowledgeable as he seems, he has made some statements that need to be corrected if you're interested in accurate information.

There are sprinklings of MISINFORMATION in the video, although Mr. Lukes did get some things correct. Even though he comes across as an expert on highwaymen paintings, it's pretty sloppy over-all work at best.

Oh, God, I'm so judgmental.

These things he tells us :

1. "Most are signed on the front or on the back".
..................well...yeah, this is fairly accurate, most are signed on the front, though rarely on the back. Many unsigned ones, and there are many, have the artist's rubber stamp inked on the back. Hair, Baker, Carroll immediately come to mind as examples I've seen of this practice.

Exception : Lately, the last several years in particular, many of the artists have made themselves available at shows and "highwayman celebrations" around the state. A along with the craze for collecting highwayman autographs in some of the several books about this art, collectors have brought vintage signed pieces for the artists to sign AGAIN and they usually will sign on the back (the verso in art speak). Mary Ann Carroll will usually add a "God bless U" to her signature. I brought her one of her early unsigned ones to sign several years ago, when the Grant Mall was owned and operated honorably by the "Dynamic Duo" of Chris and Terry. She "God Blessed" me on the back. I liked it. We can all use a little blessing now and then, eh, gentle readers ?

2. " The highwaymen began in the forties and are still painting today."
......................well. ...........Most of the LIVING highwaymen are still painting today. But that's nit-picking, so I won't hammer him for that.. BUT how many articles and books have been written stating that they began in 1954 or 55 with Harold Newton and Alfred Hair meeting up with A E Backus ? A hundred ? Sloppy, sloppy research Mr Lukes. Unforgivable.

3. All are painted on board, and the board he uses for his example is a Gibson on upson board ( I assume judging from the front. )
..............well..............Most vintage pieces from the 60's to the early 80's were on upson, and most are found in crown molding frames, however early pieces by Hair and Newton were often on artists' canvasboard, or even stretched canvases. When the Upson Manufacturing Co. in NY discontinued the manufacture of their board, most of the artists switched to masonite.

Harold Newton, in particular, painted on anything. He would buy thrift store frames and paint his own painting right on top of whatever painting or print was already in that frame. I have bought, sold, and seen many of these, perhaps a dozen. Last year I sold one by Harold that was painted directly on the GLASS of a thrift store frame. The H Newton I sold to Geoff Cook in 2002 that graces the cover of the first highwaymen video documentary was painted on a thin piece of cardboard.

I met a woman at one of my shows whose husband was a used car dealer. He bartered with Harold for a car or a pick up truck, I forget which. He was allowed to make his payments with paintings. When the day came that he was several payments late, the dealer began to look for him with the idea of re-possessing the vehicle, and eventually found him. The vehicle had been painted with beach scenes filled with naked girls running around in the sand. "Girls Gone Wild" decades ahead of its time. The lady seemed credible to me, there would be no reason for her to make that up, but I always forget to ask Harold's contemporaries if they remember that.

4. Mr.Lukes appraised the painting shown at about $ 750.00 and he is amazingly accurate. I don't know what year this video was shot, but in the year 2010, he is right on the money, which is all anyone cares about anyway, right ? What is my painting worth TODAY ?

Update 02/18/10

Be sure to click on the comments. I got hate-mail.

I absolutely LOVE hate-mail. It seems to come from people who....
1. can't handle the truth.
2. can't construct a proper sentence.
3. don't realize that they are exposing their own inadequacies.
4. rely on spell check to spell anonymous.

Please, sir, may I have another ?
.......................................sincerely, Scruffy LeBlog.