As a little girl, I remember watching Bob Ross paint. His show, The Joy of Painting, was always on PBS. He was always smiling, and painting the most beautiful scenes effortlessly. I was always jealous of how easy he made it seem. My crayons and paper were wretched tools to try to follow his instructions, but I would always try. Ross would take his pallet of paints, mix some magical colors, and softly explain how to paint a “happy little tree”.
Bob Ross painting a happy little tree. Image courtesy of HLN.
Today’s Google Doodle celebrates the 70th anniversary of Ross’s birthday. Ross (1942 – 1995) inspired viewers for over 10 years on PBS with his 30-minute painting demonstrations. He would instruct viewers how to use oil paints with a quick study technique, and broke down the process in simple steps. Soft spoken, he would always refer to scenes in nature as “happy”, which I loved.
Bob Ross Google Doodle. Image courtesy of Google.
Seeing today’s Google Doodle brought back so many memories of this show. With hurricane Sandy on the way, I was planning to ride the storm out by painting. I started a scene of the woods near my house a few days ago, and wanted to finish it. But taking a look at my studio made me realize something. I was much more influenced by Ross’s show than I thought. I always seem to paint happy little trees.
Painting of the woods near my house. I will be working on this later today!
Tree paintings in my studio.
GHTime Code(s): nc
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
I also love Bob Ross. like most people I could not get “The Happy Tree” accomplished in 30 minutes. He also had a great Fro.
Amazing fro! And sadly, I could not – an still can’t – paint a happy tree in 30 minutes. But I can paint happy trees – it just takes longer :)