Dozens of Bob Ross paintings will be auctioned to help public TV after funding cuts

Dozens of Bob Ross paintings — many of them created live on the PBS series that made him a household name — will be auctioned off in the coming months to support public television.

Ross, with his distinctive afro, soothing voice and sunny outlook, empowered millions of viewers to make and appreciate art through his show The Joy of Painting. More than 400 half-hour episodes aired on PBS (and eventually the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) from 1983 to 1994, the year before Ross died of cancer at age 52.

Ross' impact lives on: His show still airs on PBS and streams on platforms like Hulu and Twitch. It has surged in popularity in recent years, particularly as viewers searched for comfort during COVID-19 lockdowns. Certified instructors continue teaching his wet-on-wet oil painting technique to the masses, and the Smithsonian acquired several of his works for its permanent collection in 2019.

Now, the nonprofit syndicator American Public Television is auctioning off 30 of Ross' paintings to raise money for public broadcasters hit by federal funding cuts. APT has pledged to direct 100% of its net sales proceeds to APT and PBS stations nationwide, auction house Bonhams said in a statement.

Bonhams is calling this the "largest single offering of Bob Ross original works ever brought to market." Ross has become synonymous with public broadcasting — some activists have even invoked him in their calls for restoring federal funding to it.

"Bob Ross dedicated his life to making art accessible to everyone through public television," said Joan Kowalski, president of Bob Ross Inc. "This auction ensures his legacy continues to support the very medium that brought his joy and creativity into American homes for decades."

The first three paintings will be auctioned in Los Angeles on Nov. 11. The rest will be sold throughout 2026 at Bonham's salerooms in Los Angeles, New York and Boston.

"Winter's Peace," which Bob Ross painted on-air in 1993, is among his first three works going up for auction in November. He used especially vibrant colors with his TV audience in mind.

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How the offering could benefit public broadcasters

At President Donald Trump's direction, Congress voted in July to claw back $1.1 billion in previously allocated funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, leaving the country's roughly 330 PBS and 244 NPR stations in a precarious position.

CPB began shutting down at the end of September, PBS already has cut 15% of its jobs, and several local TV and radio stations also have announced layoffs and closures.

The Ross auction aims to help stations pay their licensing fees to the national TV channel Create, which in turn allows them to air popular public television programs including The Best of the Joy of Painting (based on Ross' show), America's Test Kitchen, Rick Steve's Europe and Julia Child's French Chef Classics.

Bonhams says the auction proceeds will help stations — particularly smaller and rural ones — defray the cost burden of licensing fees, making Create available to more of them.

"This enables stations to maintain their educational programming while redirecting funds toward other critical operations and local content production threatened by federal funding cuts," the auction house says.

Demonstrators dressed as Bob Ross at a Chicago protest calling for the restoration of federal funding to PBS in late September.

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Ross' paintings rarely hit the market

The 30 paintings going up for sale span Ross' career and are all "previously unseen by the public except during their creation in individual episodes" of The Joy of Painting, according to Bonhams. Many have remained in secure storage ever since.

They include vibrant landscapes, with the serene mountains, lake views and "happy trees" that became his trademark.

Ross started painting during his 20-year career in the Air Force, much of which was spent in Alaska. That experience shaped his penchant for landscapes and ability to work quickly — and, he later said, his desire not to raise his voice once out of the service.

Once on the airwaves, Ross' soft-spoken guidance and gentle demeanor won over millions of viewers. His advice applied to art, as well as life: Mistakes are just "happy accidents," talent is a "pursued interest," and it's important to "take a step back and look."

Ross spent about 26 minutes painting "Home in the Valley" on live TV in October 1993. It's been in storage ever since and will go on sale in November.

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"Ross' gentle teaching style and positive philosophy made him a cultural icon whose influence extends far beyond the art world," Bonhams says.

While Ross was prolific, his paintings were intended for teaching instead of selling and, therefore, rarely go on the market.

In August, Bonhams sold two of Ross' early 1990s mountain and lake scenes as part of an online auction of American art. They fetched $114,800 and $95,750, surpassing expectations and setting a new auction world record for Ross — at least for the time being.

"With his market continuing to climb, proceeds benefiting American Public Television, and many of the paintings created live on air — a major draw for collectors — we expect spirited bidding and results that could surpass previous records," Robin Starr, the general manager of its subsidiary Bonhams Skinner, told NPR in a statement.

Bonhams estimates that the next 30 paintings could go for a combined total between $850,000 and $1.4 million.

Disclosure: This story was edited by general assignment editor Carol Ritchie and managing editor Vickie Walton-James. Under NPR's protocol for reporting on itself, no NPR corporate official or news executive reviewed this story before it was posted publicly.
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