That guy is still painting on TV. You know who I mean, don’t you? Brown, bushy hair in a 1970s ‘fro, a large goatee with a hint of gray, wears jeans and a light blue shirt with the sleeves rolled up.
He paints outdoor scenes, usually mountains with clouds and happy little trees, and he talks as he brushes paint onto canvas. His show is on as I write this. He’s been doing this on PBS since 1983. He died in 1995. And until I searched Google a few minutes ago I knew nothing about him.
His name is Bob Ross and the show is “Joy Of Painting.” He grew up in Florida, had an alligator for a pet, taught himself to paint while in the Air Force for 20 years, stationed mostly in Alaska. He made the painting process look so easy. In his soft, hypnotic voice he would say things like, “We want happy, happy paintings. If you want sad things, watch the news. Everything is possible here. This is your little universe."
Bob Ross is now an industry. The business he started still exists online, selling video instructions, paint supplies and licensing deals. There is even a Bob Ross Nintendo video game (wow, that sounds exciti … zzzzzz).
A Little Ditty
2 weeks ago
7 comments:
That guy was absolutely amazing. Yeah, he had goofy hair and sounded like Mr. Rogers on acid sometimes, but man oh man could he paint a landscape like nobody else, and do it really fast too.
He could have just thrown paint randomly on the canvas and it would have come out looking like trees, mountains, and streams. He was that good.
I
Something else I learned about him is that his show was almost done in real time, with very few edits. Most recorded programs, even the ones that look live, have some editing. The article I read says his "wet on wet" technique enabled him to continue to add paint onto paint. He stopped to let some kind of base background color dry a little and made a subtle edit there.
I can't laugh at that hair style too much - mine looked like that in the 1970s. Fortunately I still have most of my thick Italian hair, but I keep it short.
Take the image you see as my icon, add about four inches of hair all the way around, and that's me right now.
I
Let's put a mountain right here...it's a happy mountain..with Happy trees...haaaappppyyy trrreeeesss.
I love that guy!
LeeAndra
Um, I thought he was dead. Ooops.
Um, I win the Duh Award today.
Perhaps you did :)
Although if you missed the story back in 1995, then saw this show, you'd probably want to congratulate him for still being on TV.
We should all be so lucky to still be "alive" 11 years after we die.
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