


More green than in his paintings.
“A Walk In The Woods” (1983), the first Bob Ross painting to be featured on the icon’s landmark series “Joy Of Painting,” has been auctioned off for nearly ten million dollars in Minnesota.
The nostalgic opus, which is signed in red by the bushy-fro’d Floridian, was sold to an unidentified buyer for 9.8 million after being housed at the Minneapolis-based gallery Modern Artifact, Fox News reported.
They described the work as the “most historically significant Bob Ross original painting ever created.”
Indeed, the oil on canvas — which depicted bronze-leaved trees in Autumn — is credited in part with launching Ross’ career: It was the first ever piece to be painted on his iconic show, “The Joy Of Painting,” which aired on PBS from 1983 until 1994 — one year before his death from complications of lymphona at the age of 52.
During the pilot, Ross had said that “each of us at some point during our life has wanted to paint a picture.”
“I think there is an artist hidden in the bottom of every single one of us,” added the landscape maven, who fell in love with painting while attending an art class during his 20-year career in the Air Force. “Here we will try to show you how to bring that artist out.”
“The Joy Of Painting became an instant hit with fans relating to Ross’s upbeat persona and therapeutic, ASMR-worthy monotone.
It has since gained a massive cult following: In 2015, The Amazon-owned video game streamer Twitch aired all 403 episodes of the show, which they claimed attracted 5.6 million unique viewers, ArtNews.com reported.
“The appeal of Bob Ross has extended far beyond the traditional art market and into the world of pop culture,” said Modern Artifact owner Ryan Nelson in a statement.
Ross reportedly painted 30,000 paintings during his storied career, 1,000 of which he featured on his show.
Despite his massive popularity and prolific output, the painter’s works are exceedingly hard to find (hence the steep auction price).
“Bob Ross has surpassed Andy Warhol and Pablo Picasso as the internet’s most searched for artist according to data from Google Analytics,” said Nelson. “It’s an incredibly impressive feat, especially considering that there is virtually no official marketing, and his original paintings are nearly impossible to find.”
According to ArtNews.com, many of the works were donated to the Smithsonian Museum, to various PBS member stations, or kept by Bob Ross, Inc.