Happy Painting

AS A CHILD, I remember my sister and me watching Bob Ross’ The Joy of Painting. My mom bought us paints and paintbrushes so we could paint along. For a half hour, we were the masters of our own universes, creating a new world on paper. “Mix up a little more shadow color here, then we can put a little shadow right in there. See how you can move things around? You have unlimited power on this canvas—can literally, literally move mountains,” Bob told children around the world. At the end of the half hour, I looked from my paper to the television and Bob’s beautiful mountains, trees, clouds and shadows. My work was certainly fit to be hung on the interior of a garbage can. My sister’s work, however, looked like the world on the television. She could create those beautiful scenes. I couldn’t, but I could still believe in the beauty of the places Bob created. I didn’t realize it at the time, but when he said things like, “There are no mistakes, just happy accidents,” or “There’s nothing wrong with having a tree as a friend,” he was talking to me, too, not just to the artists. Bob’s gentle words and perspectives on the world have inspired a chia pet, Monopoly Bob Ross, a Netflix documentary and a new film inspired by Bob Ross, starring Owen Wilson.

ELEVATE THE ARTS: For your Bob Ross fix, check out the following: Movies: Paint, inspired by Bob Ross and starring Owen Wilson as Carl Nargle, a PBS painter who has to contend with a younger, more popular artist stealing his fame.

Netflix: Bob Ross: Happy Accidents, Betrayal & Greed. While Bob Ross brought joy to so many people, in his personal life, there was a struggle to own what he created. The story is heartbreaking, but at least in his paintings, as Bob said, “I can make this world as happy as I want it.”

YouTube: Watch the original Joy of Painting episodes. DM

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Page 31: With the help of an AI art program my trees look happier

Photos courtesy of Dagny McKinley