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A little-known painter with a thick perm, aviator sunglasses and an unruly brown-gray beard looked into the camera for the first time in 1983 and spoke to an audience that would grow to millions over the next four decades, making him one of the most famous artists of the world.
“Hello, I’m Bob Ross and… I’ll be your host as we experience the joy of painting,” he said, holding a palette and standing next to a blank canvas. “…I believe there is an artist in each of us, and here we will try to show you how to bring out that artist and put it on the canvas.”
Ross spent the next 27 minutes transforming that blank canvas into “A Walk in the Woods,” a still life of a gray, rocky path leading away from the blue water and through a forest of bright yellow trees.
More than 40 years later, this painting from the first episode of Ross’ famous educational TV show “The Joy of Painting” is for sale. What Ross gave to a PBS station in 1983 so it could be auctioned off is now on the market for $9.85 million.
“It’s a truly unreproducible, one-of-a-kind painting,” said Ryan Nelson, owner of Modern Artifact, the art dealer that now owns Ross’ first TV artwork.
What no one knew when Ross painted “A Walk in the Woods” was that he would later star in more than 400 episodes of “The Joy of Painting,” which aired from 1983 to 1994, a year before Ross died of lymphoma died at the age of 52.
His fame has only grown in the nearly three decades since his death. Bob Ross Inc., the company that owns the rights to his television shows, has more than 5.6 million YouTube subscribers. The 635 videos posted by the company, including all “The Joy of Painting” episodes, have been viewed more than 610 million times. After his death, Ross became one of the United States’ most famous painters, beloved for his gentle teaching style and tireless optimism.
“People want to paint. It’s like a secret thing that people want to do. And it’s just, you know, he blew the lid off,” Joan Kowalski, president of Bob Ross Inc., told The Washington Post. “…He keeps telling you that you can really and truly do it.”
After Ross painted “A Walk in the Woods,” he donated it to a now-defunct PBS station in Northern Virginia where they filmed the episode, Kowalski said. It was one of three Ross paintings the station auctioned off later that year, Megan Hoffman, a spokeswoman for Modern Artifact, wrote in an email. No one can remember the exact amount the volunteer who bought the painting paid, but if it’s consistent with other prices sold at the time, she likely paid less than $100, Hoffman added.
After purchasing it, the woman displayed the painting in her home for nearly 40 years, Hoffman said. Hoffman declined to name the volunteer or the amount Modern Artifact paid her.
“This painting is an invaluable piece of Bob Ross’s collection, something she also understood,” Hoffman wrote. “This painting meant a lot to her and she found inspiration in looking at it every day.”
About two years ago, the volunteer asked Bob Ross Inc. to verify the authenticity of the painting, Kowalski said. Bob Ross Inc. wanted to establish that not only was it painted by the company’s namesake, but that it was also the one he created in the first episode of “The Joy of Painting.”
Ross typically made three paintings for each episode – one before recording that he could use as a reference, another for the actual episode, and a third for later use in textbooks. In later episodes, Ross credited the TV version.
Analysts at Bob Ross Inc. synchronized the first episode’s footage with the painting in front of them and checked whether its brush strokes and knife movements on the small screen matched the painting in front of them, Kowalski said. After two days, they determined that the painting was authentic.
“We were able to really hone in on what was important when watching the video, looking at the painting, and really, really tell from very, very small details that it was definitely that painting,” Kowalski said.
After it was authenticated, the former volunteer sold it to Modern Artifact last year.
“She wanted others to be able to enjoy the painting,” Hoffman wrote. “It has also given her the opportunity to invest in her future with the money she gained from the sale.”
Nelson, the owner of Modern Artifact, said in a statement that his gallery would accept all offers to purchase “A Walk in the Woods” but would prefer to share it with a museum or traveling exhibition “to give it to as many people as possible.” To enable viewing”. such an exciting work of art.”
At the 27th minute of that first episode, Ross finished his first on-air painting by scraping some brown paint from his palette and stabbing it into the yellow undergrowth of the forest he had created from nothing. He explained to his painting protégés that he added “sticks and stuff” to create distance and depth. He managed to throw in a few encouraging words and asked if they were “excited yet?”
“Are you ready to paint with us?” he added. “You can do it.”
Ross ended “this rascal” by signing his last name in red in the bottom left corner. After the painting was finished, he told his audience that he hoped they would enjoy watching him paint and that he looked forward to seeing them in the second episode.
“We hope you have your brush ready, a dream in your heart that you want to put on canvas, and come here to ‘The Joy of Painting,'” he said. “And you can create fantastic images too.”
Ross concluded by expressing his belief in the origins of artistic creation, something that was not exclusive to those “blessed at the birth of Michelangelo” but was accessible to everyone, including the person watching at home and more All she needed was a nudge of encouragement to bring her artistic dreams to life.
“You can take them from here,” Ross said, pointing to his heart before pointing back at the screen, “and put them there.”