Unable to find anything worth watching on TV Steve came across Bob Ross "The Joy of Painting" on BBC 4 at 19.30. He has become quite addicted to these programmes that last only 30 minutes and although he thinks he puts it on for me I can see he really enjoys it (even though he frequently nods off during the programme).
For those of you who don't know, Bob Ross was on TV between 1983 and 1994 (he died in 1995, still in his early fifties). He developed a "system" of painting in oils that was taught worldwide by instructors who had learnt the method. His system involves initially covering the canvas in what he termed "liquid white" or sometimes "liquid clear" (this is used over black gesso). I have been wondering what this liquid white was and whilst I was idly browsing on the internet looked it up (his materials are still widely available). It seems it is ordinary white oil paint thinned to a thin creamy consistency with linseed oil (or stand oil). This has intrigued me for some time so I decided it was worth a try! I knew I had some stand oil that I bought once and then didn't remember why I had wanted it so I mixed this with some ordinary titanium white that I had bought when it was on offer. It has a lot of oil in it anyway (Sennelier) so I thought this would not be a problem for this project. Bob Ross works on a double gessoed canvas panel 18" x 24" but as you know I rarely work that big so I found a scrap of paper for oils 7" x 5" and taped it to a board. I then spread a thin coat of the prepared white all over it with a rag. I didn't bother with a composition or picture to copy I just found a flat brush, a fan and a rigger (obviously much smaller than the large ones Bob Ross used) and filled it with colour trying to remember the way he worked and the sort of composition he did. This image is a photo of what I accomplished in about 15 minutes! Finding the materials, prepping the support and washing all the brushes I used (I did try other brushes along the way) probably took me over an hour!!!
I am not posting this image because it is a great painting, or because I am proud of it, but to give you an idea of what, even I can do, in a very short time and I can definitely tell you that it is great fun. It makes me laugh just to look at it!
If you have lost your mojo (or moped, as Steve says) I can assure you that you will enjoy doing it. Why not give it a try?
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Very impressive! Eva
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