During the lazy, hazy days of summers, the Sayre family has been known to study new things. Like the summer my husband and 7th grade daughter decided they were going to learn Japanese. (I'm still finding taped Japanese words on things all over the house!) Well this summer, it seems that its the summer to discover the treasures of Netflix.To that extent, we've re-discovered Bob Ross. Yes the soft spoken Happy Tree painter from PBS. Something about his gentile way of painting peaceful paintings really is soothing during this summer of turmoil. Its amazing too how much you can learn about color, value, and composition watching him paint too. He's inspired me with all new ideas of how to mix colors as well as how to shade effectively. Because of this I've done a little research on him!
8 Things You Didn't Know about Bob Ross
1. He painted a lot of paintings. A REALLY lot of paintings to the tune of at least 30,000 in his lifetime which equals to over 500 a year! Once he connected with PBS, he donated most of his work to their fundraisers.
2. He was into "Branding" before branding was cool! Bob Ross never was paid for his work on PBS. Instead he used his name to build a 15 million dollar a year business selling supplies, books, and videos that continues to this day.
3. He wasn't always a PBS icon. First, he spent 20 years in the Air Force rising to the rank of Master Sargent. His time stationed in Alaska developed his love of mountain ranges and yes, trees. He retired from the military, when he started making more money selling his paintings and giving lessons.
4. His iconic hair-do was a perm that he originally had done as a cost saving measure. It became so much of his image that when he grew to hate it, he couldn't change it!
5. Most episode paintings were painted 3 times - one done beforehand planning the composition, the second on the episode itself and third for close ups shots.
6. 90% of Bob Ross Joy of Painting viewers don't paint - ever. And yes you can count the Sayre family as part of this statistic.
7. His fast paint style wasn't a TV trick. He literally would tape a whole season of Joy of Painting in just two days doing one episode after another. The show only ran for 11 seasons but still the 403 episodes are played to this day.
8. Sadly, Bob lost his fight with lymphoma in 1995 but his peaceful presence is felt to this day.
Even as a teen I would sit memorized as Bob created a pretty world were nothing bad ever happened. Isn't it nice that we can still visit that world today even if its only for 30 minutes at a time?
So What Have You Been Up Creatively?
Even as a teen I would sit memorized as Bob created a pretty world were nothing bad ever happened. Isn't it nice that we can still visit that world today even if its only for 30 minutes at a time?
So What Have You Been Up Creatively?
9 comments:
Fun post!
So cool! I remember watching as a kid, but didn't know most of those things!
Didn't know he was on Netflix - I will watch as I love his shows. I like to do landscape art quilts and learn a lot from him.
We've always LOVED Bob Ross but especially after we attended a class last January at New Smyrna Beach, Florida. We purchase paint and canvas to do more during our 2 month winter stay on the beach. So relaxing to paint on the beach. He is still on our local PBS (which we can't get), but we pull up his videos online and recently also watch on Netflix just to be immersed in the "Joy" of his show. Thanks so much for sharing these interesting background facts.
I used to watch him with my kids. Never got bored with it, love it on Netflix. Thanks for the interesting tidbits about him.
He is still on here in Baton Rouge, mesmerizing me with his style!
Do you remember Jon Gnagy? He was the original TV Painter. Santa brought me a Jon Gnagy shading pen and stump one year. No instructions, or anything, just the pen and stump. I sure wish I had learned how to use it somehow.......
That is awesome - I remember my Grandpa wishing he could paint like him and his shows always being on at his house
Okay, I loved to watch him paint, but it was his voice that was alluring. I think he taught a whole generation of us patience, and how to observe quietly. The narrative was sparse enough that you couldn't carry on a conversation while watching--you had to be attentive! Where have these shows gone? Now it's one graphic after the next.
Thank you for the Netflix tip here, too. I appreciate that.
Julie
yes, I loved Bob Ross, and miss him still. I learned Landscape composition, to put bluer colors in the background, layering features for depth, putting a big tree in front, even if it covers a favorite part that you worked hard on, that you don't need to paint every leaf or blade of grass, trees are not lollipops, and many more things. My husband was the painter, but I think I learned so much more to apply to my fabric collages. Thanks for this reminder Nina-Marie.
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