LOS ANGELES — Three Bob Ross paintings sold at auction in Los Angeles for more than US$600,000 on Tuesday, the first of 30 canvases by the artist and television host to be sold as part of a campaign to help public broadcasters across the United States weather federal funding cuts.
The sales were announced by Bonhams, the auction house that hosted the auction. It plans to sell the other 27 paintings at several auctions next year in Boston, New York and Los Angeles. The proceeds will benefit public television stations across the country that have been grappling with the Donald Trump administration’s cancellation of $1.1 billion in funding for public media.
Ross, who died at 52 in 1995, became a beloved pop culture figure in the 1980s by hosting “The Joy of Painting,” a PBS show carried by hundreds of public television stations.
The three landscapes sold Tuesday showcase some of Ross’ signature motifs, including saturated colours and whimsical clouds:
- “Winter’s Peace” (1993), a portrait of a snow-covered cabin nestled beside evergreens, sold for $318,000.
- “Home in the Valley” (1993), in which a single house overlooks a lake with mountains and clear blue skies, sold for $229,100.
- “Cliffside” (1990), showing a flowing river gushing through the crevices of a cliff, sold for $114,800.
Joan Kowalski, the president of Bob Ross Inc, the company that oversees the Ross empire, donated the 30 paintings to American Public Television, a syndicator that distributes “The Joy of Painting” and other programmes to hundreds of public television channels. Most of the works have only been seen on the air, when Ross painted them.
Kowalski came up with the idea for the auction after seeing that Bonhams had sold two privately owned paintings by Ross in August for around $100,000 each.
Proceeds from the auctions will go to American Public Television, and the syndicator will disperse the money to broadcasters in need of relief. Neither American Public Television nor Bob Ross Inc could be reached for comment late Tuesday.
Painter Bob Ross is shown during the taping of his very first public television show ‘The Joy of Painting’ at the WNVC studio in Falls Church, Virginia, the United States, in this frame grab from video obtained by Reuters on Tuesday.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.