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Bob Ross: flaky coiffed idyll painter
Photo: COURTESY OF NETFLIX / Netflix
If the sleepless don't get a visit from sheep at night, then at least from fluffy clouds on canvas.
Bob Ross, a suitably fluffy-haired idyll painter, is a reliable ally of nocturnal pampering with his instruction format "The Joy of Painting", which has been broadcast at night on ARD-Alpha for years: with a wonderfully lulling mousse voice, he explains the various brush and scraping techniques parallel to his painting with which you could seemingly effortlessly fabricate trees and mountain panoramas yourself.
Real consolation TV
And is never strict like the mean, frustrated art teacher who would scold you if you accidentally messed up the pencil line with the watercolor, but speaks kindly and generously to himself and his audience every painting mistake as a chance for another pretty bush nice: So not bad at all, these "happy accidents".
In short, "The Joy of Painting" is real consolation TV, and Ross' works (he has painted over 30,000 dreamy landscapes) are genuine Cozy art that defy any scrutiny with criticism of kitsch. Which is why you get scared with the title of the Netflix documentary about the life and work of this apparently so nice man, you would also get this naive illusion, as is so common in life. "Bob Ross: Happy Accidents, Fraud and Greed" doesn't sound a bit idyllic after all. Fortunately, it's also fluffy.
Ross' soft image is not shaken, the most shocking detail is that he liked to zoom around in his Corvette away from the paintbrush and did not care much about speed limits. The maximally puffed up documentary title, which, according to the announcement, wants to reveal “the dark secret of Bob Ross”, refers above all to how badly he and his estate were played badly by greedily drawn business partners.
First, however, accompanied by stirring music, Ross' life is told.
That he drew his landscape inspiration from his years in Alaska, where he was stationed as a young soldier, how he met his women, that he included his son Steve in his TV show at an early age, that his trademark ball hairstyle is also a work of art, namely one voluminous perm.
And how his TV painting courses, of which he shot over 400 episodes, became so successful that from 1982 onwards, together with his business partners Annette and Walter Kowalski, he sold his own paints, brushes, videos and books.
Injured squirrel babies and greedy business partners
Over long distances, the documentary dabs Ross' memory as a soft smile painter on even more pastel colors: Here the absolute idealist who nurses injured squirrel babies to health and, with the commercialization of his art, simply wanted to encourage as many people as possible to make themselves feel sad by painting To cure everyday horrors - and on the other hand his greedy business partner couple who wanted to steal their own name from him in order to make even more friction. The film says the Kowalskis followed him to his deathbed. In the early 1990s, Bob Ross contracted lymphatic cancer, which he succumbed to in 1995 at the age of 52. It is possible that the fumes from the solvents to which he was constantly exposed at work had caused his illness.
The Kowalskis, even in his last few weeks, used rogue methods to urge him to transfer the license rights to his name, say the few contemporary witnesses, who even the prospect of a lawsuit by the couple did not prevent him from speaking in the documentary Ross' son Steve, who continues his father's work to this day, takes over most of the work.
Actually, the acting and production couple Melissa McCarthy and Ben Falcone, both ardent Ross fans, wanted to film a classic biography until they encountered this legal quarrel and shifted the focus of their documentary accordingly.
Illuminated appearing scene of the telepainters
More interesting than the legal details that explain why the Kowalskis (who refused to comment in the documentary) are still making millions of dollars selling Ross shirts, mugs, and other memorabilia today, and why Steve Ross was unsuccessful against their company in 2017 Bob Ross Inc. complained, is a scene unfortunately only sketched out in the documentary: The very illustrious scene of the telepainters who played on the field together with Ross.
A decade before “The Joy of Painting” there was already “The Magic of Oil Painting” on US television, in which the German painter William Alexander emigrated to the USA after the Second World War with a rumble accent and clearly more coarse than Ross maneuvered through his memory - Ross took courses with him early in his career.
The married couple Gary and Kathwren Jenkins showed in their programs how to bring floral motifs onto the screen and thus occupied their niche next to Ross, with whom they worked as a colleague.
Annette Kowalski is said to have played along with them too, the documentary says - by copying the Jenkins techniques for her own book on the art of flower painting.
"Bob Ross: Happy Accidents, Fraud, and Greed," on Netflix
