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Meet Florida Artist "Beanie" Backus!

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Reporter Maryanne Kane dropped in on a gallery opening for Florida artist A. E. "Beanie" Backus and got a look at his work and his thoughts about art.

"Painting is something of a disease," says Backus. "You've just got to do it."

Born in Fort Pierce in 1906, "Beanie" Backus was largely self-taught; his formal art education amounted to two summer stints at the Parsons School of Design in New York City. He always made a living with his art, painting signs, theater backdrops and billboards before devoting himself full-time to landscape painting. Wikipedia: "He painted vivid Florida landscapes, 1950's kitsch images of the ubiquitous hibiscus and other tropical flowers, the beautiful Florida sunset, beach and river scenes and the spectacular vistas of the Everglades."

Backus also taught art; his students are sometimes called the Indian River School. Backus was an inspiration to The Highwaymen, a loosely affiliated group of self-taught African-American artists who sold their work on the side of the road.

Backus died in 1990; he was inducted into the Florida Artists Hall of Fame in 1993.

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This clip is derived from news film in the WTVJ Collection. Accession number 290-43; airdate September 25, 1980.
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Highway Men
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