SNEAK PEEK: Bob Ross

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Bob Ross, “Mountain Summit,” 1987

firm oil paint on triple-primed canvas, 18” x 24” (from “The Joy of Painting,” season 13, episode 10; ®Bob Ross name and images are registered trademarks of Bob Ross Inc. © Bob Ross Inc.; used with permission)

Paul Crawford, the curator of the Penticton Art Gallery, is not an art snob. If you have any doubt, look no further than the gallery’s latest show, Happy Little Accidents, which features works by American artist Bob Ross, host of The Joy of Painting, a television show that aired on PBS affiliates across North America from 1983 to 1994.  

“I, like millions of others, was captivated and seduced into the world of art by his public television series The Joy of Painting,” says Crawford. 

The gallery, in British Columbia's Okanagan Valley, is billing the show, on view until Sept. 13, as the first-ever Canadian exhibition by Ross, a pop culture icon who continues to attract millions of viewers to episodes posted on YouTube.

“Bob Ross was a magician, one who could pull a landscape out of thin air,” says Crawford. “I was immediately seduced by the ease with which he could articulate a landscape that was nowhere in particular, yet totally familiar at the same time. 

“In the solitude of our basement, I even tried to paint along, cobbling together whatever craft paints we had lying around to little effect or success. As I grew into my teens, my interests changed, and as the years passed my memories of Bob Ross faded and morphed from a magician to a pop culture icon and purveyor of kitsch.”

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Bob Ross, “Surf's Up,” 1986

firm oil paint on triple-primed canvas, 18” x 24” (from “The Joy of Painting,”season 9, episode 2; ®Bob Ross name and images are registered trademarks of Bob Ross Inc. © Bob Ross Inc.; used with permission)

Happy Little Accidents, which explores questions around nostalgia, pop culture, high and low art and the cult of celebrity, draws its title from a phrase Ross used for apparent mistakes that work out well. It features views of mountains, lakes and rivers, and includes paintings made live on television, as well as versions painted in advance and again after the show was taped.

Ross, born in Florida in 1942, died in 1995 from lymphoma. He learned to paint during a 20-year Air Force career, mostly in Alaska, and gravitated to the wet-on-wet style, which allowed him to finish a piece in just half an hour. 

He told viewers that everyone has artistic talent and could be an accomplished painter given time, practice and encouragement. ■ 

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