Like Father, Like Son

MEET NEWLY DISCOVERED HIGHWAYMEN, HEZEKIAH BAKER, JR.

the Indian River Mall. Each month, over 100 Highwaymen and Florida landscape pieces of art are put up for bid. Manor also publishes before each sale a magnificent 72-page catalog, that is not only coffee table worthy, but sends collectors and dealers swooning. It’s not just locals who participate. Hotel rooms fill up and the bids are literally from all over the globe.

In one of those cosmic coincidences that shouldn’t be ignored, we heard that Hezekiah Baker had a son and that he was an artist. Contact was made and we found out that he wasn’t just an artist but that he was good, and he had his own spin on the hibiscus, royal poinciana, tabebuia, sunsets and Rio Mar scenes that his father first painted in the 1960’s.

The gallery is open 7 days a week by appointment and open to the public 10AM-2PM on Friday and Saturday. Call (954) 557-6226 for additional info. Stop by and see the new Baker Wall of Art.

Portfolio and Jetson TV Appliance Mattresses proudly support our veterans, the artists, and Florida art.

The last words spoken to me by Highwaymen Hezekiah Baker, before his death in 2007 were: “Don’t let them forget us!” He was referring to the 26 Florida Hall of Fame artists who painted technicolor Florida landscapes and sold them on the highways and byways of a much less populated Florida in the mid-20th century.

And… the public hasn’t forgotten them. The fascination continues, most notably at the Manor Auction in Vero Beach at

Painting landscapes in his studio over 1,000 miles away in Bangor, Maine, retired Navy & Air Force Veteran Hezekiah Baker, Jr. was thinking of his father, his hometown of Ft. Pierce, and the Highwaymen. When his dad, Baker Sr., had offered to teach him to paint when he was a teenager, he hadn’t been interested. Upon his retirement, he felt the pull of the canvas, oil paint, and the brush. Self-taught, he found himself painting the locations he travelled to while in the military.

Hezekiah Sr. had his own take as well: melding the low country of his Georgia birthplace with the lush palms and pink cotton candy clouds of the sunshine state. Scenes that are the life blood of every Highwaymen fan, who tingles and lusts after another Florida dreamscape. When dealer and collector, Ralph Oko, owner of The New Highwaymen Art Gallery, and Baker, Jr. spoke, the missing piece of the puzzle fell into place. Hezekiah told Ralph, “All I want to do is paint—could you sell my art?” A new friendship and partnership were born. Art by both Baker Sr. and Jr. (as well as other Highwaymen and Florida artists) are available at Oko’s New Highwaymen Gallery at 1872 Commerce Avenue in Vero Beach.

Written by Susan Harris