Painter and television personality Bob Ross was born on this day in 1942
Bob Ross taught us all how to paint “Happy Little Clouds”
Painter and television personality Bob Ross was born on this day in 1942
Bob Ross was born Robert Norman Ross on October 29, 1942, Daytona Beach, Florida. After Ross dropped out of school in the ninth grade, he served in the U.S. Air Force. During his service, he took his first painting lesson at an Anchorage, Alaska United Service Organizations club. From that point on, he was “hooked,” a term he would use frequently during his years as a painting instructor. After returning from the Air Force, Ross attended various art schools until he learned the technique of “wet-on-wet” from William Alexander (later his bitter rival), where oil paints are applied directly on top of one another to produce complete paintings (mostly landscapes) in less than an hour. Ross taught wet-on-wet to several friends and colleagues, and in the early 1980s, he was given his own show on PBS based on the technique. Ross’s instructional program, The Joy of Painting, premiered in 1983 on PBS, where it would run for more than a decade and attract millions of viewers. As a TV painting instructor, Ross became known for his light humor and gentle demeanor, as well as his ability to complete a painting in 30 minutes. The Joy of Painting would eventually be carried by more than 275 stations, spawning an empire that would include videos, how-to books, art supplies and certified Bob Ross instructors. The Joy of Painting was canceled in 1994 so that Ross could focus on his health; the famous TV instructor and the host had been diagnosed with lymphoma around that same time. Ross died from lymphoma at the age of 52, on July 4, 1995, in New Smyrna Beach, Florida. The majority of his original oil paintings were donated to charities or to PBS stations. Today, Ross remains one of the best-known and highest-paid American painters.
By Ken Warren, 2018
Watch painter Bob Ross on his PBS show “The Joy of Painting”
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Watch Bob Ross Remixed “Happy Little Clouds”
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