Top 10 Facts About Bob Ross
He may have been on the quiet side, but this legendary painter led an incredible life. From his former profession, to his inspirations, to his painting style, Bob Ross was an extremely interesting figure. WatchMojo counts down the Top 10 Facts About Bob Ross.
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Top 10 Facts About Bob Ross
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He may have been on the quiet side, but this legendary painter led an incredible life. Welcome to WatchMojo.com and today we’re counting down our picks for the Top 10 Facts About Bob Ross. For this list we’ll be looking at our favorite facts and anecdotes about TV painter Bob Ross, whose mellow attitude and love of happy little trees turned him into one of the most beloved personalities on TV.
#10: He's an Internet Sensation
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Some younger viewers may have been scratching their heads after seeing Deadpool sporting an afro wig in the first teaser for his second movie, so let’s take this opportunity to explain. Bob Ross was the host of “The Joy of Painting”, a PBS series where he taught viewers the joy of his artform with a now legendary mellow attitude and easy charm. In the years since Ross’s death, he’s become a bonafide internet phenomenon, with a Twitch stream of the show’s entire run garnering millions of views in 2015. His show has also had huge success on Netflix, which helped reintroduce him to a new generation.
#9: He Was Inspired by Another TV Painter
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While he was certainly a trailblazer, Ross was actually inspired by a TV painting personality who came before him: German painter Bill Alexander. Before Ross rose to TV stardom, Alexander was hosting “The Magic of Oil Painting”, a PBS show with a very similar style to the series Ross would later create. Ross was first exposed to Alexander and his style of painting and presentation when he was working as a bartender in Alaska. Ross later adopted much of Alexander’s style when he started his own series, while also adding his own unique persona to the mix.
#8: He Popularized a Painting Style Called "Wet on Wet"
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One of the great things about watching painters like Ross and Alexander in action is how you can watch an entire painting be created, from the first brushstroke to the last, in just one sitting. Normally, painting with oil-based paint requires time and careful layering. But Ross and his teacher used a different method, one known alternately as “Alla Prima” or “Wet on Wet”. This technique involves painting over a wet layer of white paint applied to the canvas in advance. The technique requires speed and discipline to get right, but its ability to yield complete paintings in a short span of time is exactly what drew Ross to the style.
#7: He Almost Never Painted People
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Watching his show, Ross seems like one of the friendliest and most sociable people you could ever hope to meet, but his paintings can tell a different story. Ross’s paintings almost never showed any sign of human activity, and he avoided human figures entirely. An analysis done of the paintings Ross created on “The Joy of Painting” revealed that only twenty-two percent of the finished works included man-made structures, almost always small cabins. Another interesting detail is that these cabins rarely had chimneys, which further minimizes the presence of human activity in Ross’s paintings. As friendly as he was, Ross much preferred nature to people.
#6: He Loved Animals
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Another piece of evidence that Ross loved the natural world was his devotion to animals. Ross was a lifelong animal lover, rescuing injured or displaced woodland creatures as a child and helping to nurse them back to health. He continued to raise animals as an adult, and a number of them made special appearances on his series, either joining Ross in the studio or appearing via pre-recorded footage. While they were all pretty adorable, our favorite is definitely Peapod the Pocket Squirrel, a baby squirrel who would hang out in Ross’s shirt pocket. Peapod made numerous appearances on the show, and quickly became an audience favorite.
#5: He Was Missing a Finger on One Hand
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One small detail that many viewers missed was that Ross was missing part of one of the fingers on his left hand. Specifically, the tip of his left index finger, which was lost during Ross’s childhood when he was using a table saw with his father. It’s a very easy detail to miss, especially since the missing digit was often obscured by the paint pallette that Ross would hold in his left hand. However, it is possible to spot the missing digit in a couple episodes, depending on the camera angle.
#4: He Would Film a Whole Season in Just Two Days
You’d think that producing a television show takes a whole lot of work, but Ross spent a surprisingly short amount of time on his TV series. Rather than film a season of “The Joy of Painting” over the course of a year, Ross would instead film the whole 13 episode season in just a couple of days! Over the course of a weekend, he’d film each episode in his studio by banging out one painting after another. It’s hard to judge just how many paintings Ross produced, especially since he would often create multiples of a given work, but he once estimated that it was around thirty thousand.
#3: His Hair Wasn't Really Curly, and He Hated His Iconic Perm Hairdo
Ross’s afro haircut has become an indelible part of his legacy and image, as recognizable as his blue work shirts and friendly smile. But Ross wasn’t the biggest fan of his ‘do, which he adopted as a cost-cutting measure. Before that, Ross’s hair was straight. In order to save money on haircuts, Ross had his hair permed, leading to the iconic fro. But when his business took off, this wasn’t as much of a concern. But the look had become so linked with his brand and image that it made more sense to keep the perm, even though Ross had grown to dislike his legendary locks over the years.
#2: He Was an Air Force Drill Sergeant (With a Reputation for Yelling)
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It’s almost impossible to imagine the legendarily mellow painter raising his voice or acting in an angry or abrasive manner, but before his career as a painter took off, Ross made a living as an Air Force drill sergeant. Ross described his time in the Air Force as requiring him to be mean all the time, a demeanor he was more than happy to leave behind after he discovered painting while stationed in Alaska. However, his time spent in Alaska wasn’t all bad, as the state’s sublime landscapes often served as inspirations for his work on the show. Before we reveal our top pick, here are some honorable mentions: He Did a Painting Using Only Grey 13 of His Paintings Were Stolen and Sold on the Black Market
#1: He Never Made any Money From his Show
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You might think that “The Joy of Painting” had Ross laughing all the way to the happy little bank, but you’d be wrong. Over his lifetime, Ross never made a penny from his PBS series, and that’s just how he liked it. As we mentioned before, the show took up very little of Ross’s time, and his main source of income was his painting supply business and art classes, which the TV series helped to promote. The only time that his show generated any kind of money was when he donated his paintings to charity or when PBS would auction them off during fundraisers.
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