It doesn’t seem possible, but Bob Ross passed away in 1995. His legacy has more than endured though. Even 25 years after he left us, both his kindness and passion for painting are still inspiring people all over the world. And his bucolic works full of happy little trees can be found in even the most unlikely of places. But now you can appreciate his art right from your computer in a new virtual exhibit. It’s more than just a digital gallery though; it’s also a statistical breakdown of how he brought his iconic works to life.
Bob Ross
The Bob Ross Virtual Art Gallery (which we first heard about at DesignTAXI) comes from data scientists Connor Rothschild and Jared Wilber. The site features 31 seasons worth of The Joy of Painting works, all 403 pieces (381 from Ross) created on his beloved how-to series. You can easily scroll through each one in a nifty digital gallery. Or use a fun graph to see them. Every painting also includes a YouTube link. That way you can watch Ross creating each from scratch.
But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. (Which we imagine is a serene, kind iceberg.) Rothschild and Wilber also gathered data on the collection. You can see break downs of the paintings by colors and how many of them he used in each. (The most common amount in a given painting is 12 different colors.) As well as which hues he most frequently applied. (Titanium White, which appears in all 403.)
Users can also learn about how he moved from favoring one color to another over the course of the show. And those he only used sparingly. All presented with easy-to-understand visual guides.
It’s an entirely new way to appreciate the joy of Bob Ross. Not that we’ve ever stopped appreciating it.