“Start gentle at the top, and then tap a little more,” instructed artist Chris Severn.
It’s the beginnings of a happy scene inside a Friday night Wescosville Art Class.
“Every tree needs a buddy,” Severn said.
It’s a brush technique fans of a certain PBS star may recognize.
“What is so fun about painting like Bob Ross?”
“What isn’t? We end up having an awesome landscape painting. It’s relaxing,” said two students.
Bob Ross: the calm, soft voiced, Afro-haired host of the 1980’s and 90’s show “Joy of Painting,” was famous for his landscapes. It inspired 30-year artist Chris Severn to teach Let’s Paint a Picture, his own Bob Ross style, wet on wet, paint class.
“What exactly drew you? Pun intended, to be a Bob Ross instructor?” I asked Severn before his class.
“Just the fact that he said you could do it, you know, he said, anybody can do it. You shouldn’t be afraid. And as long as you worked at it, you could get good at it. And I really believe that,” he said.
Severn opened the often sold-out class, taught 8-10 times per month, 4 years ago, after becoming a certified Bob Ross landscape instructor. He took intense classes at the Bob Ross Art Workshop and Gallery in Florida.
A simple stroke for clouds, how he teaches students, like Amy Chebib, to turn a blank canvas, into a Bob Ross replica in 3-4 hours.
Despite dying from cancer in 1995, the legacy of Ross is hard to miss.
His happy little magnets and mugs are among a myriad of Ross memorabilia. There’s a Netflix Documentary, original episodes now streaming on Hulu, and the 2023 movie Paint, where Ross inspired Owen Wilson’s character.
“As kid, I always thought it’d be wonderful to be able to paint along with him,” said Christine Favata.
She owns the Creative Learning Lab, which hosts Bob Ross painting classes.
“What is it about Bob Ross that has this staying power?” I asked her.
“When he paints and when he creates, He’s so calm. And in art, a lot of people feel it can be calming, but it can be stressing, stressful. You don’t know what to expect. You might make a mistake. And Bob was all about embracing the mistakes,” she said.
“It’s as far away from engineering as I can get,” said Frank Paretti.
A place, where those like Paretti don’t make mistakes but, as Ross would say, just happy little accidents.
“It’s hard to repeat this in any other experience,” he said while finishing up.
As Severn’s class comes to a close, a new view opens up.
“He made it so that you could and anybody that is willing to pick up a paint brush can come to class, and you’ll leave with a Bob Ross painting. Absolutely,” Severn said.