Highwaymen Art Another Perspective

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Biography: Roy A. McLendon Jr.

Roy Algin McLendon Jr. was born in the town of Bridgeton, a city in the framing area of southern New Jersey on October 7, 1955. When he was born, his parents Roy McLendon Sr. and Annie B. McLendon were migrant workers that had traveled to the northern states for seasonal work.

Shortly after his birth, Roy and his family returned to Gifford, a small black community on the east coast of Florida, where his father began his artistic quest that was inspired by his neighbor Harold Newton, a deceased Florida Highwaymen.

Landscape and seascape permeated his childhood along with the occasional still life or portrait. A natural artist from drawing in the sand to paint and brush at the age of eight(8) in 1963 is when he truly began. In his teen years Roy began to paint alongside and sell his paintings with his father, Roy McLendon Sr., who is also inducted into the Florida’s Hall of Fame.

As a little boy growing up in the south, a flower, a citrus picker, wildlife, birds, a deer and other small animals, a wooden house on blocks, kids playing and clothes hanging on the clothesline give fondest memories of days gone by but stand very vivid in his mind.

Roy’s material of trade at his start was that of mostly Upson board and crown molding for framing. His median of choice is Oils. He is known for his renditions of southern subjects and Caribbean scenes, a fusion of Florida’s lush landscapes with childhood memories of home places, backcountry sunsets, Royal Poinciana’s and the moonlit rivers and lakes.