Note
Livingston "Castro" Roberts (1942-2004)
Backwater Cut
Oil on Upson Board circa the early 1960s
Image size 24" X 36"
Livingston "Castro" Roberts moved to live with his grandmother, in Fort Pierce, in 1957. There, he met and became friends with Alfred Hair. Discovering that they both had a passion for painting, they became inseparable friends. Harold and Sam Newton also became friends and mentors to Livingston, whose goatee was similar to Fidel Castro's and earned him the nickname "Castro". Livingston taught numerous painters, including George and Ellis Buckner, Samuel Newton, Willie Daniels, Johnny Daniels, Jimmy Stovall, and his brother-in-law Charles Walker. He greatly admired Harold Newton's painting skills, which influenced him not to rush his works, unlike his "speed painting" friend Alfred Hair. Tragically, Livingston was with Hair that fateful day in the summer of 1970 when Alfred was shot dead at a local juke joint. Deeply shaken, he moved to upstate New York near Buffalo to work with his Uncle, a potato farmer. Roberts did not move back to Fort Pierce until 1975. His NY landscapes occasionally surface; once back in Florida, he resumed painting Florida scenes.
Castro often visited A. E. Backus' studio to improve his craft. Highwaymen salesman Al Black said of Livingston, "He was the best painter of all the Highwaymen and the nicest. I have sold Castro's paintings since 1963. You show them from Key West to Montgomery, Alabama, and his paintings sell themselves." As we slip under a canopy of trees and through its portal to a river sanctuary in the distance, we can't help but admire Robert's palette knife work in the billowing pink clouds that tower above. Time seems to stand still. There is no urgency here, only a sense of calm as an egret quietly settles on the still waters. We, too, sense the peace and solitude as we step back to a refuge of another time. This painting was on loan to Senator Marco Rubio's office in Washington from 2008 to 2016.