Discovering ‘The Joy of Painting’

For the first time in my life, I wanted to throw something at Bob Ross’ happy little forehead.

I’ve been watching Bob Ross’ TV show, “The Joy of Painting,” on YouTube since middle school, entertained by the permed hippie persona as he paints landscapes in a calm, soothing demeanor. I had no interest in painting at the time, like plenty of other “The Joy of Painting” viewers. Lots preferred to only watch the show, enamored by Bob Ross himself.

“It was almost the exact opposite of what television typically is and what you go for,” said Steve Rossi, assistant professor of art at St. Joe’s. “There’s nothing really funny about it. There’s nothing really ironic about it. But what was engaging was his sincerity.”

Still, Bob Ross was all about encouraging viewers to pick up a brush, even if few of them did. So, one Sunday afternoon in mid-March, I did what Bob Ross asked and painted alongside him for the first time. 

Preparation

In addition to having never followed a Bob Ross tutorial before, I’d never painted before, either. I started drawing four and a half years ago, but that’s it. Rossi gave me some advice for artists trying out a new medium. 

“Give yourself permission to be a beginner,” Rossi said. “A lot of times, people have a really refined end product in mind, and when you’re thinking about the end product, it’s going to lead you through to a frustrating process to try to get to a refined end product.”

I also spoke to Emma Matza ’25, president of St. Joe’s Art Club, for advice and words of encouragement before I headed on this Bob Ross-ian endeavor. 

“Be really open and not so critical of yourself,” Matza said.

My next step was gathering the materials. I decided to follow the 1990 episode, “Blue Winter,” which I found on YouTube. Luckily, it only required three colors: Titanium White, Midnight Black and Prussian Blue.

The hiccups

Bob Ross discusses in his tutorials that he uses a style of painting known as the “wet-on-wet” technique. The painter wets the canvas with a thin paint before painting on layers of very thick, oil-based paint. The technique enables the artist to blend color easily and complete the painting quickly.

Unfortunately, Toland Hall — where I’d gone to paint my masterpiece — only had acrylic paints, which are completely wrong for Bob Ross’ style. I also didn’t have a fan brush, which is essential to painting evergreen trees like Bob Ross.

However, after a minute on Google and Reddit, I concluded acrylics could be easily used in place of oils. I also figured another brush could probably be swapped out with no problem.

Finally, I was ready to paint just like Bob Ross. I was only missing the right kind of paint, the liquid to wet the canvas, one of the essential brushes and years of experience.

“Blue Winter”

With my setup complete, I tried embodying Bob Ross’ serenity. Rossi likened it to meditating.

“It’s really nice, the way that he’s modeling that tranquil creative process,” Rossi said. “I think there’s real value in that.”

After a calming breath, I began following along, watching as Bob Ross started mixing his blue and black together to create a color for his sky.

It started going horribly wrong when I laid my brush to the canvas, finding I bungled the paint ratios by using far too much black, plunging my overcast scene into a land of perpetual darkness. I did my best to blend the color into the canvas to mute it, but the paint didn’t blend as much as it was dragged across the canvas. While I was floundering with my sky, Bob Ross had moved on, already painting a happy little cloud.

Later, Bob Ross was in the middle of painting evergreen trees, and I was smacking my fat liner brush against the canvas with the elegance of a drunk toddler.

I never fully appreciated how fast Bob Ross painted. The entire episode, I was playing catch up, rewinding the episode and getting smudges of paint on my laptop’s keyboard from frantic pausing. I knew I was fully screwed when, while dunking my brush between cups filled with soapy water to clean off the paint, I tapped my two-inch brush onto the canvas and tiny bubbles appeared on my sky. 

At the end, Bob Ross said to the camera, “And there we have a finished painting.” 

I stared at my computer in disbelief. I yelled back at Bob Ross, “That’s it?” My painting did not look like his. My sky was black, my trees were blobs of paint and I couldn’t quite tell where my pond ended and my snow began. I was discouraged.

But there’s another Bob Ross motto: “Talent is nothing more than a pursued interest.” Skill comes with practice.

Following this tutorial opened my eyes to the potential joy of painting, one I can develop and foster for years to come. Yes, painting may be difficult now, but that’s OK. I’ll try to remember when painting gets tough that I won’t make mistakes — only happy accidents.