While he sold his painting early in his career, while he was on TV Ross gave most of his paintings away to PBS stations to help them raise money. 3. Ross Never Once Got Paid by PBS Ross never asked PBS to pay him for his services. Instead, he had other income streams If playback doesn’t begin shortly, try restarting your device.
Net Worth At the time of his demise, Bob Ross had a net worth of $6 million. His fortune did not come from his popular show as he was not paid for it. Rather it came from his company, Bob Ross Inc.
These paints proved to be very lucrative and continue to be a main source of revenue for Bob Ross, Inc. According to PBS, which continues to air the Joy of Painting, fewer than 10 percent of viewers ever painted along with Ross. Although the show faithfully teaches his techniques, it turns out few people tuned in to make art.
With help from Annette and Walt Kowalski, Ross used his television show to promote a line of art supplies and class recordings, building what would become a $15 million business – Bob Ross Inc. – which would ultimately expand to include classes taught by other artists trained in his methods.
How much money did Bob Ross make?
Bob Ross was a $15 million a year business that actually continues to this day, selling supplies, videos and books. 8. Ross was a Longtime Animal Lover. Ross frequently featured animals on his show and was known to contribute to animal-friendly charities.
Having held military positions that required him to be, in his own words, “mean” and “tough,” “the guy who makes you scrub the latrine, the guy who makes you make your bed, the guy who screams at you for being late to work,” Ross decided that if he ever moved on from the military, he would never scream again.
His Biggest Catchphrase. Ross became a big hit for PBS with his anyone-can-do-it attitude and his mellow, southern drawl. But his optimistic outlook was also key, including this little phrase, which remains today: “We don’t make mistakes, just happy accidents.”.
The Joy of Painting show was actually a great marketing tool for Ross, who earned a living with his painting supplies, videos and teaching. 5. He Worked Really Fast. Ross’ unique style of painting, which his show taught to viewers, emphasized moving quickly and efficiently.
We tend to think of Ross’ Joy of Painting show to be a perpetual powerhouse on public television, but in reality it only ran for 11 seasons, from 1983-1994. While that’s nothing to sneeze at, it’s not the huge back catalog most assume.
The military lifestyle, with intense periods of work followed by short bits of downtime inspired Ross’ super fast style of painting, since he could work that way while not screaming at airmen.
Ross was always quick to praise his mentor, Bill Alexander, who taught him the fast wet-on-wet technique of painting. Alexander actually hosted a PBS show called The Magic of Oil Painting and it looks like that wasn’t the only way he influenced Ross.
ADVERTISEMENT
How much did Bob Ross sell his paintings for?
Despite the unusually high supply of original paintings, Bob Ross original paintings are scarce on the art market, with sale prices of the paintings averaging in the thousands of dollars and frequently topping $10,000.
He was spoofed in the YouTube web series Epic Rap Battles of History in the episode “Bob Ross vs. Pablo Picasso ” .
Ross had one son, Robert Stephen “Steve” Ross, with his first wife, Vivian Ridge. Steve, also a talented painter, occasionally appeared on The Joy of Painting and became a Ross-certified instructor. Steve appeared on camera in the last episode of Season 1, in which he read a series of general “how-to” questions sent in by viewers during the season, and Bob answered them one at a time, technique by technique, until he had completed an entire painting. Ross fathered one other child from a relationship he had as a teenager.
Ross used a wet-on-wet oil painting technique of painting over a thin base layer of wet paint. The painting could progress without first drying. The technique used a limited selection of tools and colors that didn’t require a large investment in expensive equipment. Ross frequently recommended odorless paint thinner ( odorless mineral spirits) for brush cleaning.
Small animals often appeared on his Joy of Painting canvases. Ross painted an estimated 30,000 paintings during his lifetime.
Ross and Ridge’s marriage ended in divorce in 1977, allegedly due to Ross’s infidelity. Ross and his second wife, Jane, had no children together. In 1992, Jane died of cancer. In 1995, two months before his death, Ross married for a third time, to Lynda Brown.
Early life. Ross was born in Daytona Beach, Florida, to Jack and Ollie Ross, a carpenter and a waitress respectively, and raised in Orlando, Florida. As an adolescent, Ross cared for injured animals, including armadillos, snakes, alligators and squirrels, one of which was later featured in several episodes of his television show.
