Bob Ross, the gentle-voiced painter whose sublime landscapes became a fixture in American living rooms, is now lending his posthumous brush to support public broadcasting. This November, approximately thirty of his works—many of which were painted live during episodes of The Joy of Painting—will be offered at Bonhams New York. Organised in partnership with Bob Ross Inc., the auction seeks to raise millions for US public television stations, many of which have faced severe funding shortfalls following federal cuts under the Trump administration.
The decision resonates with the ethos Ross himself embodied. For years, his quiet, unhurried guidance—effortlessly conjuring serene landscapes from empty canvases in mere minutes—became a calm, constant presence on American airwaves.
According to Bob Ross Inc., the sale is a direct continuation of this mission, designed to ensure his work perpetuates the public broadcasting system that first shared it. The funds will flow directly to local PBS and NPR stations, underpinning beloved institutions from This Old House to the timeless culinary tutorials of Julia Child.
Ross, who died in 1995 at the age of 52, has seen a posthumous revival unlike any of his contemporaries. During the pandemic, his programmes—digitally remastered and streamed online—offered comfort and stability in a time of collective uncertainty. His mantra of “happy accidents” and belief that “anyone can paint” have since taken on near-mythic resonance, turning him into both an art-world curiosity and a cultural touchstone.
Recent auctions have reflected this enduring fascination. Two paintings—Lake Below Snow-Capped Peaks and Lake Below Snow-Covered Mountains and Clear Sky—sold this August for $114,800 and $95,750, respectively, far surpassing their estimates. “Bob would have been quite shy to learn that his paintings are now selling at six figures,” said Joan Kowalski, president of Bob Ross Inc. “He was never really that interested in his finished works. Bob was more fascinated with the process of painting and sharing that with other people.”
That distinction—between art as object and art as experience—was fundamental to Ross’s approach. His television persona, with its signature afro, denim shirts, and quiet empathy, transformed the practice of painting into an act of collective meditation. A former Air Force drill sergeant, he turned discipline into serenity, replacing command with reassurance. Through his wet-on-wet technique, borrowed and refined from his mentor Bill Alexander, Ross could conjure a fully realised scene in a matter of minutes, narrating each stroke with warmth and humour.
Born in Daytona Beach in 1942 and raised in Orlando, Ross discovered painting while stationed in Alaska, selling landscapes to tourists before returning to the mainland to pursue it full-time. When The Joy of Painting premiered in 1983, few could have predicted that its thirty-minute episodes would become an influential part of American visual culture. His company, Bob Ross Inc., continues to train instructors in his method and sell materials to aspiring artists worldwide.
Now, as his canvases return to the public sphere through the auction, there’s a certain poetry to the cycle. The man who once urged millions to pick up a brush will once again help sustain the institution that made him possible. Ross’s landscapes, once painted to demystify art, now serve as quiet patrons of the very system that allowed them to exist—a fitting afterlife for an artist who believed, above all, in the shared joy of creation.
Photo: Courtesy Bob Ross Inc.