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Bean was born Albert Ernest Backus in Ft. Pierce in 1906. Just before his high school graduation, in 1924 he dropped out to work to raise money to go to the Parsons School of Design and Art in New York, where he received all of his formal training. World War II saw Backus serving a stint in the U.S. Navy. After the war commissions kept him confined to his studio in Ft. Pierce, but even during his busiest years he found time to give free art lessons on weekends, and to serve as a mentor to dozens of students. One of his students of the early 1950s was Alfred Hair (1941-1970), a local African-American artist who also had an eye for Florida scenery. Hair, along with fellow Florida artist Harold Newton (1934-1994), were heavily influenced by Backus's characteristic painting technique using a palette knife to apply thick strokes of vivid colors. Hair and Newton went on to influence a group of Florida African-American artists who made their livings selling paintings at roadside stands throughout Central and South Florida. In the 1990s, the group (of 26 artists) became famous as "The Highwaymen" when critics recognized their collective work as serious art. Today, the legacy of the Florida Highwaymen is well understood to have begun in the Ft. Pierce studio of "Bean" Backus. He died in 1990 and was posthumously inducted into the Florida Artists Hall of Fame in 1993.

Jacqueline "Jackie" Brice has been painting since 1967. She studied for eleven years with her mentor and friend, A.E. Backus of Fort Pierce. Prior to her work with Backus, Brice studied for ten years with Vela Boss of Miami. The Martin County Council for the Arts invited Brice to write the text on the "Backus Colors" for the book A.E. "Bean" Backus - The Backus School, published in 2002. In 2004, Brice was asked by the Board of Directors of the A.E. Backus Museum and Gallery in Ft. Pierce, Florida, to reproduce a Backus painting titled "A New Day Dawning" as a mural on an outside wall of the museum. In her forty-five year career as an artist, Brice who lives in Jupiter has focused on painting rivers, back country and wetlands of the state she loves and has earned numerous accolades. She was later inducted into the Florida Artists Hall of Fame in 2012.