Oil painting -> List of Painters -> Bob Ross

Bob Ross

Early Life: Bob-Ross With a wild afro and a calm, soothing voice, Bob Ross trained 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.

Career:

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.

IRoss' 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-crude 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 enthusiasm of painting, and that this should be taken into account when considering Ross' body of work and influence.Bill Traylor