#25 - Bob Ross Painting Class

This new adventure went on my list my 40th year "to do" list as soon as I decided to do my 40 new adventures. I have  so been looking forward to it, and it didn't disappoint.

Who hasn't been captivated by Bob Ross? As I was searching the web for his image, I found the following description of a person's first exposure to a Bob Ross video. I think it sums up what just about everyone experiences when they first stumble upon a Bob Ross episode on TV, as I did about 15 years ago. From http://www.silviahartmann.com/:   At first, I had to laugh - at the way he looked, at the way he spoke. But within seconds, I was mesmerised (and being a hypnosis trainer, I don't use that term lightly, believe you me!). I was absolutely fascinated by what he was doing, how he was doing it, and what he was all about there - call it Bob Ross's energy, if you will. It is true to say that I had nothing short of an epiphany as I watched Bob Ross create fabulous "little trees" and "happy little bushes" out of nowhere, in seconds; three strokes of the fan brush make a waterfall; a small brush loaded with different paint colours on either side creating instant highlights; and as to the palette knife making a mountain ...

After seeing Bob Ross whip out masterpieces in less than a half hour, I have always wanted to give it a try myself.  He just makes it look SOOOO easy.  So, I decided my 40th year would be the perfect time to see if I am a starving artist at heart.   As if it were meant to be, this summer while at the framing shop on Peterson AFB, I saw an advertisement for a local woman who teaches Bob Ross painting classes.  Hurray! 

I called to inquire about the classes. At first I was disappointed to learn the we wouldn't be completing our paintings in only 30 minutes, but Lori, the teacher, assurred me that it would be disaster if we tried to complete our masterpieces as quickly as Bob. She said that Bob always told people, "It takes 30 years and 30 minutes to complete a painting,"  and she said to expect to spend at least 4 hours creating our first landscape.  So, disappointment aside, today Aubrey, Hunter and I headed to Lori's house for our lesson.

Lori is a wonderfully friendly woman. She grew up watching Bob Ross videos on TV and loved them. She didn't pursue this interest until, as an adult, a small inheritence from her parents provided her the financial means to  Bob Ross Instructor Certification school.  She is very talented and clearly loves what she is doing.

We set up in Lori's kitchen and got to work. We watched a Bob Ross episode of  "Mountain Reflection," and then we got started.  Well, 30 minutes came and went, and we barely had paint on our canvas.  Lori was definitely right: attempting to complete a painting in a half hour would have been a fiasco.  Just learning to mix colors was a challenge.  However, we were making definite progress, and we were having a great time.

Lori encouraged us to personalize our paintings, so each of ours had its own flavor.  Lori painted along with us, showing us each step.  Amazingly, our paintings began to come to life, and soon we had "happy trees" and "happy bushes" dotting our landscapes.  Lori stepped in to help whenever we had a crisis.  We learned that you can remove mistakes and just paint over that area again. Thank goodness for that! Total painting time: over 4 hours, prep time: over an hour, clean up time: about an hour. Our painting experience took the better part of a day, but the end results were awesome!  We couldn't believe we had created these!  Take a look at our results.

WE DID IT!! We are Bob Ross proteges!!!  Maybe in 30 more years we will be able to knock them out in 30 minutes, but for now we'll be content with our snail's pace masterpieces.  This new experience was AWESOME!   I encourge everyone to release their inner artist!