What Happened To Bob Ross Paintings
Bob Ross is not a hard human being to find.
Though he died in 1995, the tardily TV painter remains an omnipresent cultural staple. His Chia Pet perm, nap-inducing voice, and meme-worthy sayings — "Happy trivial trees!" — have transcended time. On YouTube, old episodes of his prove, The Joy of Painting, boast ~450m views.
Online, you can acquire Bob Ross paints, Bob Ross brushes, Bob Ross underwear, Bob Ross coffee mugs, Bob Ross energy drinks, Bob Ross watches, and Bob Ross toasters.
But there'south one thing you won't ofttimes see for sale: his artwork.
During his lifetime, Ross produced tens of thousands of paintings. Yet, only a handful of his works have popped upwards for sale in recent years. When they do appear, they oft fetch $10k+ and attract dozens of bids.
Why is the work of one of history's most prolific and accessible artists so scarce on the open up market place?
To find out, I spoke with art gallery owners, auctioneers, fine art collectors, ex-colleagues who worked with Ross, and the president of Bob Ross, Inc. — the company that preserves his legacy.
The man behind the sheet
Born in Daytona, Florida, in 1942, Ross dropped out of schoolhouse in ninth form to work with his father, a carpenter.
At xviii, he joined the Air Force and moved to Alaska, where he'd spend the side by side 20 years equally a drill sergeant, screaming at recruits. He was such a hard-ass that he earned the nickname "Bust 'em upwardly Bobby."
Just his life changed when he discovered fine art.
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Inspired by the TV painter Bill Alexander, he started painting landscapes on gold mining pans and selling them at local markets in Alaska.
His income from painting soon surpassed what he made in the armed services. So, in 1981, he migrated back to Florida, trained nether Alexander, and became a certified painting instructor.
Bob Ross strikes a happy pose (Photo: Acey Harper/The LIFE Images Collection via Getty Images)
Now, here'due south where things took a wild turn for Ross:
- 1 of his students, Annette Kowalski, was "mesmerized" by the jolly painter and encouraged him to strike out on his own.
- They pooled together their life savings, launched Bob Ross, Inc., and set out to make Ross into a TV star.
- A PBS executive gave them a shot.
- The bear witness — The Joy of Painting, which aired between 1983 and 1994 — was a huge hit and was broadcast on ~300 stations to 80m+ people every day.
In each 27-minute episode, Ross would paint one landscape from first to finish, shepherding viewers through his process with a soothing disposition, entertaining commentary, and an occasional guest appearance by his pet squirrel, Peapod.
Ross didn't go paid for his shows. Simply Bob Ross, Inc. — which he partially owned — used the platform to sell paints, art supplies, workshops, instructional videos, and merchandise. By 1991, it was a $15m/yr ($29m today) enterprise.
The bodily paintings, though, were largely an reconsideration.
Over the course of his career, Ross filmed 381 episodes of The Joy of Painting. For each episode, he painted 3 versions of the aforementioned artwork — one before, one during, and one afterward taping.
But his TV career only scratched the surface of his total output.
Pre-fame, in Alaska, he sold thousands of paintings. And fifty-fifty while famous, he painted nearly every 24-hour interval at seminars, events, and charity auctions in between tapings.
All told, Bob Ross churned out ~30k paintings in his lifetime — nearly 3x the output of Picasso, a prolific painter in his own right.
Zachary Crockett / The Hustle (painting © Bob Ross Inc.)
For years, collectors and fans take clamored to own their ain piece of Bob Ross lore. Multiple art dealers told The Hustle that need for his work is extraordinarily robust.
But Ross paintings are a bit like diamonds: vast in book, scarce on the open up market.
Major sale houses — Christie's, Sotheby's, Phillips — have no Bob Ross sales history. Craigslist draws a goose egg. A browse of eBay only turns upward iii sales in the last 6 months, 2 of which are of dubious origin.
Where the heck are those 30k paintings?
Bob Ross, Incorporated
As a part of Ross'southward agreement with Bob Ross, Inc., the paintings he created for Tv set were work for hire, pregnant the company maintained buying of his piece of work.
When Ross died in 1995, Bob Ross, Inc. (and thus, the paintings) became the sole property of Annette Kowalski and her married man, Walt.
Today, ane,165 Bob Ross originals — a trove worth millions of dollars — sit in cardboard boxes within the company's nondescript function building in Herndon, Virginia.
Joan Kowalski, Annette'southward daughter, and the electric current president of Bob Ross, Inc., tells The Hustle that the company had never really given the paintings much thought.
"The paintings have e'er just sort of been here," she says, with a chuckle. "We were sort of backside the times… it never occurred to us that anyone would want them."
The company, which tin be reached by dialing 1-800-BOB-ROSS, gets constant inquiries from folks near buying the paintings.
But they're non for auction.
"Our but mission," Kowalski says, "is to preserve the mythological wonderment that was Bob Ross."
TOP: Joan Kowalski (elevation left; president of Bob Ross, Inc.) and Sarah Strohl (executive assistant) express joy at a social media post of a fan wearing Bob Ross socks; BOTTOM: Strohl sifts through some of the company'south many original Bob Ross paintings (Neb O'Leary/Getty Images)
Role of the reason Bob Ross, Inc. isn't interested in selling the paintings is that it has far more lucrative avails on paw — like Bob Ross's IP.
The company holds 154 copyrights, and numerous trademarks on Ross's name and likeness, which they apply to sell millions of dollars' worth of Bob Ross-themed merchandise and instructional courses.
On occasion, Bob Ross, Inc. leases out a few paintings to galleries and exhibits around the country:
- 54 paintings can be seen at The Bob Ross Fine art Workshop & Gallery in New Smyrna, Florida.
- 27 paintings are at Minnetrista's Bob Ross Feel in Muncie, Indiana.
- 4 paintings are in the possession of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History in Washington, DC.
But this merely answers a office of the mystery. What about all the other paintings Ross gave away or sold during his life?
The open market
Jessica Jenkins, a VP at the Minnetrista showroom, and a Bob Ross scholar, tells The Hustle that many more Ross paintings are actually hanging in living rooms beyond the Us.
"He was always happy to donate his paintings to fundraisers, or sell his work at a reasonable price," she says. "Many people who own i caused information technology decades ago."
For years, WIPB-TV — the PBS chapter station in Muncie, Indiana, where Ross filmed nearly of his episodes — would auction off a Ross painting at its annual fundraising drive.
According to the town's newspaper, The Star Press, these paintings were always "the about anticipated item," overshadowing tickets to Cancun, diamond necklaces, rare Beanie Babies, and basketballs signed by Magic Johnson.
"We still have 4 of his paintings hanging here at the station," says Lori Georgi, a manager at WIPB. "People come from England just to see them."
An sometime newspaper clipping advertises an sale for an original Bob Ross painting featuring "majestic snow-covered mountains, a tranquil lake surrounded by towering evergreens, and a beautiful sunset sky." (The Star Press; Muncie, Indiana, 2000)
Before he became a TV star, Ross likewise sold thousands of his landscape paintings at flea markets, fairs, and malls, often for small sums of cash.
This is how Larry Walton, 82, of Crosslake, Minnesota, acquired his original Bob Ross.
Back in 1980, while working as a flight instructor in Alaska, he bought a scene with mountains and bluish northern lights from the then-unknown "peculiar artist" at an Anchorage fair for $60.
It spent years sitting in the garage until his son — an avid fan of Bob Ross YouTube videos — idea the signature in the corner looked familiar.
When the couple decided to sell it, they turned to Modern Antiquity, an art gallery and dealer in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Ryan Nelson, the gallery'due south possessor, tells The Hustle that he'south been buying and flipping Bob Ross paintings for 10 years. To find sellers like Walton, he uses SEO tactics and places "wanted" ads in local newspapers virtually where Ross spent time.
"We buy and sell more of his paintings than whatsoever gallery on the planet," he writes via email. "To retain that position, we offer more money to buy his paintings than most anyone is willing to risk."
The Waltons sold the painting to the gallery for $10k; Nelson and then flipped it on eBay for a small profit.
Different traditional fine art collectors, those who possess Bob Ross paintings tend to exist ordinary folks who don't know what they're in possession of.
"Most families that have these paintings are not millionaires," he says, "and the coin is very impactful in their lives."
An original Bob Ross painting up for sale on Modernistic Artifact's website for $95k (Mod Artifact)
Modern Artifact has sold at least 34 Bob Ross paintings over the years.
Nelson wouldn't divulge the sale prices, but said it's not uncommon for them to go well beyond $10k. On the site, he currently has a rare ocean scene listed for $94k.
It may seem odd that Bob Ross paintings fetch that much at market.
Subsequently all, Ross oftentimes produced a painting in less than 30 minutes (past dissimilarity, it took da Vinci four years to complete the Mona Lisa), and his artwork was, by pattern, highly replicable.
Simply Nelson chalks the crazy prices up to a combination of bones economic principles and social uppercase.
"The bottom line is supply and need: Bob Ross paintings are extremely tough to observe, and more people want them than tin have them," he says. "They're as well the ideal chat pieces, since they are almost universally recognizable."
A few Bob Ross classics. Elevation: Wilderness Fashion, The Joy of Painting, S31, E13.; BOTTOM: Northern Lights,The Joy of Painting, S8, E13. (both © Bob Ross Inc.)
Lindsey Bourret, managing director of the art appraisal site Mearto, estimates that the off-white market place value of a Ross painting — the price it should sell for based on precedent — is $2k to $4k. Just the pop culture element to his work boosts demand.
"I would personally categorize Ross's piece of work as a hybrid between fine fine art and entertainment memorabilia," she says.
Some buyers are willing to pay a premium for that.
One collector who didn't wish to be named out of business concern for her privacy, owns an extensive enshroud of artwork, including several six-figure pieces. But she considers her Bob Ross original her "crown jewel.""I've had more guests comment on my Bob than my Picasso," she tells The Hustle. "It'due south really all about the story."
Information technology'south all well-nigh the process
Ultimately, the existent reason there aren't more Bob Ross paintings up for sale is that the artist never wanted them to exist a commodity.
For Ross, the value was in the procedure, not the finished production.
"He was most as uninterested in the bodily paintings every bit you could possibly be," says Kowalski. "For him, it was the journey — he wanted to teach people. The paintings were but a ways to practise that."
Annotation : Meridian image of Bob Ross © Bob Ross Inc.; photograph illustration by The Hustle
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Source: https://thehustle.co/why-its-nearly-impossible-to-buy-an-original-bob-ross-painting/
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