Art Analysis: Oil Paint, TV & Landscapes
As an adult who has not explored their own artistic abilities, I am intrigued with Bob Ross’s ability to teach people how to paint. Bob Ross became a household name because of his television show “The Joy of Painting” which aired on PBS from 1983 to 1994, Bob Ross Quick Bio.
On this show he would paint a picture explaining, step by step, on how to create each layer of the painting. He would create a complete oil painting on each episode using the wet-on-wet technique that he learned from Bill Alexander, another artist who had a television show called “The Magic of Oil Painting”. The wet-on-wet technique is applying oil paint on top of still-wet oil paint.
I find that I am generally drawn to realistic art as compared to abstract art. I think that’s one of the reasons that I like Bob Ross’s artwork. It is realistic depicting outdoor scenes, some of which are based on Alaskan scenery.
An interesting fact about Bob Ross was that he was stationed in Alaska while serving in the military. He started painting in Alaska and later went on to be taught by Bill Alexander. Click on our great state to learn all of the juicy details about his military service and time spent in Alaska.
Bob Ross has painted as many as 30,000 paintings during his lifetime of 52 years which were not always dated, find the technical details here. He painted 381 of those paintings on his television show, he was so insiring an individual took a deep data dive into his works. The picture below is from this analysis and more can be found here.
Bob Ross was known for the way he described the objects while he painted. He painted “happy trees,” “almighty mountains” and “fluffy clouds”. These phrases bring back sentimental memories of my childhood. I had an uncle who would regularly watch “The Joy of Painting”. He would watch intently with his easel and paints and follow along to the directions. My uncle had surprisingly become a pretty decent artist and would hang his masterpieces throughout the house.
Works Cited:
Bob Ross Encyclopedia Britannica. Available at: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Bob-Ross (Accessed: 03 February 2025).
How Bob Ross’s time in the Air Force inspired his paintings. Available at: https://www.biography.com/artists/bob-ross-air-force (Accessed: 04 February 2025).
Bob Ross (2025) Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Ross (Accessed: 03 February 2025).
WaltHickey (2014) A statistical analysis of the work of Bob Ross, FiveThirtyEight. Available at: https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/a-statistical-analysis-of-the-work-of-bob-ross/ (Accessed: 03 February 2025).
My favorite person to watch on TV teaching us all how to paint, saying, "We don't make mistakes, we have happy accidents." About six years ago, I decided that I was going to buy some oil paints, a few canvases, and brushes of all types so that I could learn how to make some of my own happy accidents. I am still learning how to do oil paintings! The analysis photo showing each element, from a tree to a bridge, and how many times he added each to one of his paintings is a great visual of how many paintings he painted on television.
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