In the late 80s / early 90s era of cable TV, one of the most popular (at least, one of the most referenced shows) was this show about painting. It was literally nothing more than a camera trained on this old hippie dude painter (with a huge afro) who painted these sedate landscape pictures. He would begin the show with a blank canvas, and just simply paint a picture in 30 minutes, while talking the viewing audience through it step by step. He was always very cheerful & upbeat, yet strangely sedate & soothing at the same time. It became kind of a catch-phrase / joke how he would talk about adding "just a dab of paint here, another little dab of paint there - dab, dab, dab! It was this strangely mesmerizing show everybody alive seemed to know about.
He came up in a conversation this evening, and I cannot for the life of me recall his name. Of course everybody I was having dinner with instantly knew who I was talking about when I mentioned him saying “Just a little dab of paint here…” Who was he again? I know he died about ten years ago. But what was his name again?
My late husband spent a LOT of time in the hospital and we loved to watch Bob Ross in the hospital room. Yeah, we’d make fun of him… “happy little tree, happy little rock, happy little mountain…” He was fascinating to watch. The paintings certainly resembled each other a lot. I will always associate him with those days. May he rest in peace.
FYI, his technique was pretty much invented by Bill Alexander, and Ross was probably a student of his. Alexander used a wet technique with large brushes and broad strokes that was fast and effective. I took a class in his method, and it’s amazing how fast you can turn out a painting that looks like it took you much longer.
According to Wikipedia, although Bob Ross seemed like a big hippie he actually spent a decade in the military. He disliked having to play the tough guy and decided that once he left the military he’d never yell at anyone again.
I remember hearing years ago that he’d actually been a drill sergeant, but the Wikipedia article doesn’t make this claim and I suspect it was an exaggeration by whoever I heard that from. It is funny to imagine a drill sergeant with the same manner of speaking used by Bob Ross on his show, though. “Why don’t you drop and give me twenty? That’s right, some happy little pushups. Up and down…”
