Very few artists can capture the hearts of many like Bob Ross did. The painter was one of the most revered artists of all time, and his television show, The joy of painting on PBS, proved it.

The artist never made mistakes, just “happy accidents” and made painting so easy that anyone could do it.

Although Ross passed away over two decades ago, his legacy lives on to this day through his art and exhibition. Although his show was top rated and aired for many episodes, Ross never made any money with The joy of painting. So how did he make his money? Find.

Ross’s success came in his last years in life

The famous painter was born Robert Norman Ross in October 1942. As a teenager, the star loved and cared for injured animals such as snakes, alligators and squirrels. He dropped out of high school and started working with his father as a carpenter.

During his stay, Ross lost part of his index finger, but luckily the incident did not affect his ability to create art later in life. He enlisted in the US Air Force in the 1960s, when he discovered oil painting.

After leaving the military, he began to attend various art schools and also went under the tutelage of Bill Alexander to perfect the wet and wet technique. This technique allows the artist to create paintings in a very short period of time by applying one layer over another.

It wasn’t long before Ross began teaching his peers in painting and technique and eventually landed his show. Annette Kowalski discovered Ross in a classroom in Florida and teamed up with him to tell Bob Ross Inc.

The couple met when Kowalski’s husband urged her to take Ross’s class to cope with her son’s death. She had agreed to take the course only because Alexander had withdrawn from teaching. Kowalski also helped Ross become a public figure.

“ The joy of painting ” and the phenomenon it has become

The joy of painting debuted on PBS in 1983. The show followed Ross as he created landscape paintings while urging viewers to join him in drawing “happy little trees” and “happy little clouds” . Although few of his viewers painted with him, many listened to his inspiring messages and listened to his gentle humor, calm voice, and cold demeanor.

His company, Bob Ross Inc., even believes that no more than 3% of viewers made the paintings. Ross would always make painting easy by minimizing his skills and asserting that there was nothing to be done. He then took out a paintbrush and declared that it was time to ‘go crazy’.

His former business partner Kowalski once said that while Ross made the paintings fun and simple, there was more to him that was not “as spontaneous as they sounded”. The joy of painting ran for over 300 episodes and ended in May 1994.

The show didn’t end until the producers said Ross took a hiatus to “focus on his health.” Sadly, the artist died the following year from lymphoma.

Ross never won anything from ‘The Joy of Painting’

The joy of painting might have been a success, but Ross actually never had a dime for it. According to Agitation, the artist did the show for free. However, his company, Bob Ross Inc., used the platform that came with the PBS Show to sell art supplies, paintings, hold workshops, sell merchandise, and instructional videos.

Over the course of his lifetime, Ross developed over 30,000 paintings, which, directly compared to the prolific painter Picasso, is almost three times as many. At the time of his death, Ross was worth around $ 10 million.

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