Bob Ross paintings will be auctioned in support of U.S. public TV stations

Thirty paintings created by the bushy-haired, soft-spoken Bob Ross will soon be up for auction to lend a hand to small and rural public television stations in the U.S. that are suffering under cuts to federal funding.

Ross, a public television stalwart in the 1980s and '90s, "dedicated his life to making art accessible to everyone," 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."

Bonhams in Los Angeles will auction three of Ross's paintings on Nov. 11 as part of the auction house's California and Western art sale. Other auctions will follow in London, New York, Boston and online.

While details about the rest of the paintings that are set to be auctioned off will come at a later date, the three paintings that will be up for sale on Nov. 11 are Ross's 1993 works Winter's Peace and Home in the Valley, as well as Cliffside, which he painted in 1990.

All profits are pledged to stations that use content from distributor American Public Television.

The idea is to help stations in need with licensing fees that allow them to show popular programs that include The Best of Joy of Painting, based on Ross's show, America's Test Kitchen, Julia Child's French Chef Classics and This Old House.

Congress has eliminated $1.1 billion US allocated to public broadcasting at the behest of the Trump administration, leaving about 330 PBS and 246 NPR stations to find alternative funding sources. Many launched emergency fund drives. Some have been forced to lay off staff and make programming cuts.

The beloved Ross died in 1995 of complications from cancer after 11 years in production with The Joy of Painting. His how-to program was shown on stations around the U.S. and the world. The former Air Force drill sergeant known for his calm demeanour and encouraging words enjoyed a resurgence in popularity during the lockdowns of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ross spoke often in calming tones as he worked on air, painting happy little clouds and trees, and making no mistakes, only "happy accidents."

According to Kowalski, public television meant "everything" to the late artist.

"The structure of pubTV meant he could talk directly to the viewer, just him and that one other person — much more intimate than other forms of programming," Kowalski told CBC News in an email.

The 30 paintings to be auctioned span Ross's career and include landscapes depicting serene mountain vistas and lake scenes, his signature aesthetic. He created most of the 30 on air, each in under 30 minutes, which was the span of a single episode.

Bonhams sold two early 1990s mountain-and-lake scenes of Ross in August for $114,800 and $95,750 US, with one of them setting a new global auction record for Ross.

The auctions of the 30 paintings soon to be sold have an estimated total value of $850,000 to $1.4 million US, Bonhams said. Kowalski added that the August paintings sold for far more than they were initially valued at, however, which means even more money could be raised for public TV.