Painting with Bob Ross or Making the Impossible Possible
At the age of 9 my favourite TV show was "Painting with Bob Ross". A 30 minute PBS show where Bob Ross, himself, painted a breath taking landscape from start to finish on a blank, white canvas. (It's undeniable that I've had an ingrained nerdiness from a very early age...)
No word of a lie, I grew up thinking the impossible was possible and there wasn't a dream too big if Bob Ross was able to paint like "THAT" in 30 minutes.
It was only very recently that I watched a PBS documentary on Bob Ross in which I discovered he pre-painted all of his landscape portraits for his "live" television show and kept them just off camera while he repainted them for the taping of the show. I was shattered!
I was so disappointed that someone I admired so much was a fraud. OK, maybe that's a bit harsh because I don't actually know if that was public knowledge but either way I started wondering if the impossible really was possible.
Then, just as fast, I started to feel relieved. Everything I've achieved I've always worked really hard at accomplishing and I always wondered why people had natural talent that I didn't possess. Maybe I'm not so different from one of my inspirations after all! When I plan and work hard I'm really good at what I do. I also end up, indirectly, being prepared for all sorts of things I've never expected.
Not too shabby I say! :)
No word of a lie, I grew up thinking the impossible was possible and there wasn't a dream too big if Bob Ross was able to paint like "THAT" in 30 minutes.
It was only very recently that I watched a PBS documentary on Bob Ross in which I discovered he pre-painted all of his landscape portraits for his "live" television show and kept them just off camera while he repainted them for the taping of the show. I was shattered!
I was so disappointed that someone I admired so much was a fraud. OK, maybe that's a bit harsh because I don't actually know if that was public knowledge but either way I started wondering if the impossible really was possible.
Then, just as fast, I started to feel relieved. Everything I've achieved I've always worked really hard at accomplishing and I always wondered why people had natural talent that I didn't possess. Maybe I'm not so different from one of my inspirations after all! When I plan and work hard I'm really good at what I do. I also end up, indirectly, being prepared for all sorts of things I've never expected.
Not too shabby I say! :)
Hi, Melina.
ReplyDeleteTo put the pre-painted painting in perspective, to me it's like having an outline when you are teaching people something. You need to be prepared and not just do stuff "off the cuff" or you could have a disaster. I saw that show and didn't even think of him being a fraud. I'm sure he could paint these paintings in his sleep - LOL! He was very talented but I'm sure he worked hard to prepare his TV show so that it LOOKED like it was effortless. The goal of his show was to show the viewers how to paint and to encourage them to experience the joy. And he obviously did that. Don't be disappointed in him. :)
Thanks for your feedback Aunty Judy. I like your perspective for sure. :) There will always be a happy little cloud in my heart for him. :)
ReplyDelete1) Thank you for admitting publicly that you watched a documentary about Bob Ross. Last week I watched a (totally fascinating) documentary about Helvetica - that's right, the font.
ReplyDelete2) WTF, he did the paintings before?!! LIES! DAMN LIES!
3) Good point, Judie!
(It's Daphna here, but it says SUVegan because of an old blog)