Bob Ross
Bob Ross, born Robert Norman Ross on October 29, 1942, in Daytona Beach, Florida, is best known as an artist and television personality who became a cultural icon through his PBS series, *The Joy of Painting*. After a brief career in carpentry and serving in the U.S. Air Force, Ross discovered his passion for painting while stationed in Alaska. He developed a unique teaching style based on the "wet-on-wet" painting technique, which allows for rapid application of paint, and began sharing his art through television in the early 1980s.
Ross’s calming demeanor and motivational approach resonated with millions of viewers, making painting accessible and enjoyable rather than a daunting task. Over his career, he produced over four hundred episodes, promoting individual expression and a sense of peace through art. After his passing in 1995, his legacy continued to flourish, with reruns of his show gaining immense popularity on platforms like Twitch and YouTube, and his artwork being featured in museums.
Bob Ross's impact extends beyond television, inspiring fan events and merchandise, while his gentle encouragement continues to influence both aspiring artists and those seeking relaxation.
Bob Ross
Painter and television personality
- Born: October 29, 1942
- Birthplace: Daytona Beach, Florida
- Died: July 4, 1995
- Place of death: New Smyrna Beach, Florida
Also known as: Robert Norman Ross
Significance: Bob Ross was a painter and television personality of the 1980s and 1990s whose nonjudgmental attitude and soothing voice when instructing on his craft created a cult following that has endured for decades after his death.
Background
Bob Ross, whose full name was Robert Norman Ross, was born on October 29, 1942, in Daytona Beach, Florida. The only child of Jack and Ollie Ross, he largely grew up in Orlando. After dropping out of high school following ninth grade, he worked with his father doing carpentry.
At around eighteen, Ross enlisted in the United States Air Force. He was eventually assigned to the Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska in 1963. Becoming a first sergeant, his responsibilities included overseeing the discipline of his subordinates, which required him to be a stern task master and act tough and mean, something he detested and vowed to change after he left the military.
In Alaska, Ross saw snow and mountains for the first time and was entranced by both. He also began studying the art of painting. In addition to part-time bartending, he painted Alaskan scenes on gold-panning tins that he sold to tourists to add to his income. By painting very fast and using his available free time, he produced a high number of painted tins and made such a significant income from selling them that he retired from the US Air Force in 1981 to pursue a career in art.
Painting on Television
After his retirement, Ross worked for a time as an art instructor for William Alexander, a proponent of the “wet-on-wet” method of painting whom Ross had become aware of and studied under during his service. This method involved applying layers of wet paint atop other layers, which allowed a painter to create an oil painting very quickly. Ross taught painting classes in locations throughout the continental United States. In 1982, he partnered with Annette Kowalski, a student who had attended one of his classes in Florida, and her husband and started a painting instruction business. Bob Ross Inc. did poorly at first due to a lack of reputation, and Ross permed his hair to save on haircuts. After he became well known, he retained his signature bushy hairdo.
In 1982, a Falls Church, Virginia, public television station viewed a promotional tape of Ross teaching (which included an appearance by Alexander) and made a pilot of his classes. The Joy of Painting was picked up by sixty Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) stations its first year on air in 1983. The next year, Ross moved to a small PBS station in Muncie, Indiana, WIPB, that promised him full artistic license. He stayed with the station through 1994 and taped slightly more than four hundred episodes total.
In each thirty-minute episode of The Joy of Painting, Ross taught viewers how to paint their own creations by following his instructions as he painted a scene. He talked directly to viewers and shared personal, motivating comments. Unconcerned about artistic standards or aesthetics, he viewed painting as an exercise in joy and encouraged viewers to paint as a way of pursuing their own dreams rather than to create masterpieces worthy of hanging in art museums. He peppered his shows with folksy sayings that promoted individual expression and freedom. Liberally adding trees, or “happy little trees” as he called them, to his paintings, as well as clouds, he encouraged a gentle way of life, speaking in a calm, nurturing voice and encouraging others to be happy and accepting of others and themselves. Many of The Joy of Painting’s viewers tuned in to Ross’s show for his personality and hypnotic voice rather than his art lessons, and to be lulled to sleep by his relaxing voice.
By 1990, the show had millions of viewers and was aired on almost three hundred PBS stations nationwide. It ran until 1994, when Ross, who had developed lymphoma, left his television career to spend more time on his health. In addition to his television show, Bob Ross Inc. sold instructional videotapes and books, licensed a line of art supplies, and offered painting workshops and courses to train art instructors. Ross published several books, including More Joy of Painting with Bob Ross (1991) and Bob Ross’ New Joy of Painting (1993).
After a second battle with lymphoma, Ross died on July 4, 1995, at the age of fifty-two.
Impact
Bob Ross’s popularity continued to grow after his death in 1995. By 2013, with the documentary Bob Ross: The Happy Painter already having been released in 2011, reruns of his show appeared on more than four hundred public television stations. In 2015, the gameplay streaming platform Twitch ran a marathon of his shows. Episodes of his show are also available on the video-streaming service YouTube, with several episodes tallying more than five million viewers. Bob Ross Inc. published several recordings of his shows and new books based on them. His voice has been used in a relaxation app and his likeness in LEGO figurines and dolls as well as on merchandise such as toasters, socks, and calendars. By the end of the second decade of the twenty-first century, interactive board games focused on Ross had begun selling in stores. Art museums and galleries around the world had also continued to express interest in tracking down and obtaining original Ross artwork, and it was highly publicized in 2019 that the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History had acquired a small selection of paintings as well as a number of artifacts from the headquarters of Bob Ross Inc. for its collection. During the coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in 2020, it was often reported that even more people were accessing episodes of The Joy of Painting as they were quarantined to learn a new hobby or to help them de-stress.
Ross’s iconic status expands beyond watching his shows or listening to his voice. His fans have organized activities such as annual bar crawls in which participants dress up like him or flash mob events in which students dressed like him relieve the stress of exams.
Personal Life
Ross was married to Jane Ross until her death in 1993. His son, the painter Steve Ross, survived him. Steve became a Bob Ross instructor and had appeared as a guest artist on eleven episodes of The Joy of Painting.
A lover of animals since childhood, Ross devoted much of his time to caring for injured wildlife. He used his backyard as a rehab center for crows, squirrels, and other orphaned or injured animals.
Bibliography
Archer, Sarah. “In Search of Sleep, with Bob Ross.” The New Yorker, 21 June 2018, www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/in-search-of-sleep-with-bob-ross. Accessed 2 May 2019.
Congdon, Kristin G., et al. Happy Clouds, Happy Trees: The Bob Ross Phenomenon. UP of Mississippi, 2014.
Eordogh, Fruzsina. “Bob Ross Was an Internet Sensation before the Internet.” Motherboard, 20 Feb. 2016, motherboard.vice.com/en‗us/article/8q8gxb/bob-ross-was-an-internet-celebrity-before-the-internet. Accessed 2 May 2019.
Hajek, Danny. “The Real Bob Ross: Meet the Meticulous Artist behind Those Happy Trees.” NPR, 29 Aug. 2016, www.npr.org/2016/08/29/490923502/the-real-bob-ross-meet-the-meticulous-artist-behind-those-happy-trees. Accessed 2 May 2019.
Hunley, Jonathan. “Chantilly Company Sells Art Items Related to Bob Ross, Who Taught Painting on TV.” The Washington Post, 25 Jan. 2016, www.washingtonpost.com/local/bob-rosss-legacy-of-joy-lives-on-in-office-park-in-chantilly/2016/01/22/b05c97fa-bee2-11e5-83d4-42e3bceea902‗story.html. Accessed 2 May 2019.
Kamer, Foster. “Bob Ross’ Strange Afterlife.” The New York Times, 2 Dec. 2015, www.nytimes.com/2015/12/04/fashion/mens-style/bob-ross-the-joy-of-painting.html. Accessed 2 May 2019.
Solly, Meilan. "New Investigation Answers Pressing Question: Whatever Happened to All of Bob Ross’ Paintings?" Smithsonian Magazine, 18 July 2019, www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/whatever-happened-all-bob-ross-paintings-180972672/. Accessed 31 July 2020.
Vargas, Theresa. “In the Shadow of the Nation’s Capital Is Bob Ross Inc., Where Everything Is ‘Happy.’” The Washington Post, 17 Oct. 2018, www.washingtonpost.com/local/in-the-shadow-of-the-nations-capital-is-bob-ross-inc-where-everything-is-happy/2018/10/17/b4e9c31a-d21c-11e8-b2d2-f397227b43f0‗story.html. Accessed 2 May 2019.