Bob Ross

Bob Ross (October 29, 1942-July 4, 1995) was an American painter and television presenter. He was born in Daytona Beach, Florida. He spent a 20-year career with the U.S. Air Force in medical records, stationed mostly in Alaska, before his painting career and television program made him famous worldwide. He died in 1995 of lymphoma.

He was the host of The Joy of Painting, perhaps the most recognized, most watched art program in the history of U.S. television.

With a bushy afro and a calm, soothing voice, Bob Ross taught viewers to paint "happy little trees", "happy little clouds" and "pretty little mountains." On occasion, after cleaning his 2" brush in paint thinner, he'd "beat the devil out of it." He believed that everyone has inherent artistic talent and, given half an hour, anyone could paint a landscape by following his instructions. The TV series also provided Bob Ross a platform to introduce his own and other people's little rescued "rascals" including squirrels, owls and robins.

He introduced the wet-on-wet painting technique which is the application of wet paint on top of wet paint, omitting the traditional waiting period for each layer to dry. Together with using large 1-inch and 2-inch brushes it allows to paint trees, water, clouds and mountains in a matter of seconds. In his method of painting there are no mistakes, only "happy accidents" which can be integrated into any painting.

Ross took up painting while stationed in Alaska by the Air Force. The geography of Alaska is visible in much of his later work on The Joy of Painting: mountains, lakes, and snow scenes were often mentioned as favorites of Ross. Having learned to paint on his own, he is notable for having no formal artistic training (e.g., art school).

He later expanded his show into a multimillion-dollar business that included "how-to" books, a line of art paint, brushes and courses in which instructors were trained in the Bob Ross method.

The series was taped for 11 years, until 1993 and is broadcast in many countries worldwide. Currently (2004/2005) The Joy of Painting is being shown on German television (BR-Alpha). The show also runs in syndication on American public television stations.

Ross' style of quick, methodic paintings has received some criticism from other artists and art critics, who have called his style artificial and devoid of detail - they point to the fact that he uses a limited range of overly-simplistic techniques, and that many of his landscapes lack a basic grounding in the natural world. Once, at an art demo at a mall, he was chased down in the mall's parking lot by traditionalist painters carrying buckets of water and shouting at Ross to "Scat!". Supporters of Ross point out that he has helped many people discover the excitement of painting, and that this should be taken into account when considering Ross' body of work and influence.

The paintings are the excellent portrayal of the events and scenes that we see around us. The painters are the best cameras of the world. They reproduce many different types of pictures. They even draw imaginary pictures that do not exist in this world. We tend to use both thinned oil paints and dense oil paints. Masterpieces can be dyed more than once, but each time it may be different from the existing paintings.h

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