The Joy of Painting… with Joel Comm?

A long time ago in a galaxy far away (1989, to be specific), I was a young man who was learning how to do sales. While I won’t go into specifics of what I was selling, I found myself busy many evenings meeting with people in their homes.

That meant I had time to kill during the day.

One day I was flipping through the television channels and I came across a kind-spirited, smiling man wielding a paint brush on PBS. His name was Bob Ross, and his show was called “The Joy of Painting”.

I was fascinated by the way Bob would take a blank canvas, a palette of ten colors, and in one 30-minute episode transform the canvas and colors into a beautiful landscape with fluffy little clouds.

I was so fascinated that I went to Hobby Lobby to buy canvas, oil paints (who knew Alizarin Crimson and Phthalo Green were legit colors?) an easel and a how-to book.

I would videotape the show (remember VCRs?) and follow along with Bob Ross. After I got comfortable with the techniques, I began painting based on the examples in his book.

I even attempted to do some of my own work without an example to mimic.

Turns out anyone really can paint by following Bob’s teaching! Well, I guess “paint” means I could make a mess and end up with something that resembled a landscape.

Since I recently moved, I found myself going through boxes of stuff, only to run across the paintings that I did about 24 years ago. That’s half my life ago!

Are you ready for some entertainment? Most of these are painted on 16″ x 20″ canvas, though a few are smaller. Sorry they aren’t all centered, but I think imperfection goes without saying when it comes to my “art”. They are presented in no particular order.

Pretty sure this was my first attempt. Bob always seemed to make his flowers, trees and plants so beautiful. I felt like mine came out like a blob of color.

One of my attempts at a scene without an example to pattern it after. Boom.

I remember being very unhappy at how this one turned out. Artists are never happy. But since I’m not an artist, what’s my excuse?

A classic Bob Ross scene. Only not-so-pretty.

What is that? No, really. Someone tell me, please…

Ironic that I painted so many mountains while living on the plains of North Texas. And now the mountains are in my backyard. I like it.

A dark forest. I like the trees and atmosphere. The cabin? Not so much.

Um. Ya.

Birds and ducks! Animals make everything happier.

Purple mountains majesty? Looks like someone attacked the mountain range with frozen yogurt. Yum!

I like this one. The colors of the sky may be unrealistic, but they make me happy.

Another freehand piece of work. Who doesn’t like rainbows?

Some of these seem very repetitive.

This one was simple, but I like the colors.

This is one of my favorites. I actually kept this on the wall in my house for a few years. and I guess it’s pretty cool until you see what Bob’s original looked like.

This is my other favorite.

More mountains. More trees. More water. More happy little clouds.

A chilly winter scene.

Um..er.. hmmm.. it’s… it’s… well, it’s something, isn’t it?

I’m not sure what to do with these. Now that I have digital photos I really don’t feel a need to keep most of them.

But I wonder if I could auction them off for charity. Would anyone pay for a “Joel Comm original” if we raised money for a worthwhile cause?

Art critics click here. The rest of you leave comments below.