Joy of Painting -
From 1983-95 the
mellow-voiced, bearded artist, Bob Ross hosted
THE JOY OF PAINTING, a half-hour PBS produced
art program that taught viewers on the
techniques required to create landscape oil
paintings. Ross encouraged his TV students to
realize that the canvas was their world and they
could paint anything their imagination
conceived. He urged beginning painters to make
"happy little clouds" and "pretty mountains."
During one program Bob said "When I go home I
don't have any control over anything except the
garbage, but on the canvas I can do anything."
The shows were taped at WIPB-TV in Muncie,
Indiana. Ross died in 1995.
A precursor to Bob
Ross was the goateed artist, Joe Gnagy who
hosted the art instruction series YOU ARE THE
ARTIST/NBC/1946-50 and LEARN TO DRAW/SYN/1952-59.
He taught art, painting lessons and merchandised
drawing kits (he owned a large art supply store
in Paramus, New Jersey) to encourage his TV
pupils to better their drawing skills. Gnagy
died in 1981.
