The 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.