The Joy of Painting

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You know, there is the old series that aired for 31 'seasons' from 1983-94 called The Joy of Painting that starred the late Bob Ross.

Simply put, Bob Ross himself, noted for his legendarily cheery manner and soft, friendly voice, the show aimed to teach people painting techniques in the amount of time given. Ross worked in oil paints and taught a method called "wet-on-wet painting", where the canvas would be coated with wet white paint and other colors would be laid over it, allowing for a variety of blending techniques. The show was very minimalist, using only a black background and two camera positions. Due to his time spent being stationed in Alaska in the Air Force, all of Ross' paintings were of nature, mostly forests or mountain valleys.

You know, I have so many fond memories of this show, watching it as a wee child and becoming amazed at the techniques used, and how Bob would make a wonderful masterpiece in such a short amount of time. Even today, 20 years after Bob died from lymphoma in 1995 (he was only 52), his shows still get much airtime on TV and can be viewable online as well. A great guy, great series...... very much worth watching.

I watch him every single Saturday morning, at 6:30AM, on PBS----and, have done so, off-and-on, for 30 years!! I agree that he's worth watching----no matter how many times I watch him, I continue to be mesmerized by his painting demonstrations, and hypnotized by his voice.

It is only just now that I am discovering the first season of his series he made in 1983, and of note of this first series- he wore glasses and had a fuller beard! That, and there were many edits as well, as opposed to the real-time presentation he used for most of the run.

I love The Joy of Painting. It's television at its finest.

I use to watch him occasionally but that's because of when his show started and where I was in life at that time.

Before Bob, there was another artist, an older German artist name William Alexander who painted in the same technique/style. I use to watch him every Saturday on PBS when I was a teenager, looking for ideas on technique. The Magic of Oil Painting. He painted "mighty" trees and mountains. He was very passionate about his technique and art. He was Bob's teacher.

There was another artist I really enjoyed watching, but I don't remember his name. He worked on one painting and I recall it taking an entire season. It was in the style of the French impressionist, or at least the subject matter was. It was definitely not speed painting. He stretched the canvas, did sketches, it was very informative.

Bob died in 1995 and Bill died in 1997. As equestiatola said, Bob was 52. Bill was 81.

I never watched Family Matters, so after reading a Family Matters post about Steve Urkel having Asperger's, I did some research that eventually took me to Mental Floss. There I noticed this.

20 Bob Ross Quote to Make Life Better

Yeah, Bob Ross can well hypnotize me also. About the only other TV program that can do that to me is Teletubbies.

He's now often referred to as the Father of ASMR.

Anybody else watch this show?

I watched this show religiously quite a few years ago. I'm going to see what channel it's on where I live, so I can watch it again. I love that guy.

I love that show! It replaced Saturday cartoons when I was a kid! I learned to paint from watching him!

I grew up loving Bob Ross watching PBS. I never had any interest in art whatsoever, am not a very peace loving sort of guy, but he entranced me. His simplicity, pleasantness and patience was entertaining. I mean, he painted one of three pictures seemingly every episode, but I never cared.