Bob Ross The Painting Wizard

Bob Ross uses his paintbrush like Harry Potter uses his wand.  You see a canvas then after the flick of the wrist, a beautiful landscape.  Not only would Bob bang these out, he is rumored to have more than 30,000 paintings, but he would teach us his wizarding ways as well.  Bob Ross started a show that ran for more than 10 years on public television.  The show was called "The Joy of Painting".  With his calm demeanor and quotable personality, I don't know what was more of a joy, the painting or Bob himself.

Yup, that title is correct.  The super cool and collected Bob Ross was a career military man.  He was stationed mostly in Alaska and served for 20 years.  He was one tough dude.  He had to be - when he retired he earned the rank of Air Force Master Sergeant.

Bob painted using a wet-on-wet technique.  This allowed him to paint beautiful paintings quickly.  Bob learned to paint quickly so he could make some fast money.  He was known to paint the Alaskan landscapes on gold sorting pans.  Bob took his experience in Alaska and became the greatest TV Art Teacher around.

Bob Ross didn't get paid for his decade of work on television.  He did build a 15 million dollar empire on books, videos and painting supplies. 

Bob Ross passed away in 1995.  His television shows are still around, helping teach us to chill and paint.  Some of his episodes can be found on Netflix.  Bob Ross is a prime example of Awesomeness - even more than 20 years later, you're still greatly missed.