It all started with a simple painting.

With his quiet voice, his seemingly unending patience and his faith that a mistake could easily be painted over with a tiny bush, Bob Ross would spend 27 minutes teaching his viewers to paint.

From pictures of calm rivers and majestic mountains in the background, to wooded forests hiding small, rustic cabins, his skill with a paint brush brought a bit of calm into our lives.

The painting was his first on TV: a rocky path that led away from calm waters toward a forest full of trees.

And now, that painting which he donated to a PBS station in 1983, is expected to be auctioned off for nearly $10 million.

“The Joy of Painting” aired from 1983 to 1994. Each episode began in nearly the same way.

“Hi, I’m Bob Ross, and … I’ll be your host as we experience the joy of painting,” he would say, as he held his paint palette next to a blank canvas.” 

I think there’s an artist hidden in the bottom of every single one of us, and here we will try to show you how to bring that artist out, to put it on canvas.”

His first work, “A Walk in the Woods,” kickstarted what would end up being more than 400 episodes.

“It’s a truly irreplicable, one-of-a-kind painting,” said Ryan Nelson, owner of Modern Artifact, the art dealer that now owns Ross’s first TV artwork.

Ross, who died in 1995 of lymphoma at age 52, has never lost the popularity he had when he was hosting his show. If anything, in fact, it’s grown. His company, Bob Ross Inc. has more than 5.6 million YouTube subscribers, with more than 635 videos and more than 610 million views.

The quiet, subdued painter has become one of the United States most recognized painters. His joy has made him beloved, even after his death.

“People want to paint. It’s like a secret thing that people want to do. And it’s just sort of, you know, he’s blown the lid off of it,” Bob Ross Inc. President Joan Kowalski said. “ … He’s telling you constantly that you really and truly can do it.”

“A Walk in the Woods”, Kowalski said, was one of three paintings Ross donated to the PBS station in Virginia where he had filmed his first episode.

The paintings were auctioned off, Nelson said, with the first one going to a station volunteer, for what was likely less than $100.

The woman, he said, kept it for nearly 40 years until she sold it to the Modern Artifact auction house, for an undisclosed amount.

“She wanted others to be able to enjoy the painting,” Nelson said. “It has also afforded her a chance to invest in her future with the money she gained from the sale.”

He said he hopes that a museum or traveling exhibit “to allow as many people as possible to view such an exciting work of art.”

Ross, still an important part of American television and art, would end his shows with words of encouragement and advice, the very thing his viewers needed.

He used the final minute to say goodbye, each time. In that first episode, asked viewers, “You ready to paint with us? You can do it.”

After signing that first painting, he told viewers he hoped to see everyone in Episode 2

“We hope you have your brush ready, a dream in your heart that you want to put on canvas and join us right here for ‘The Joy of Painting,’” he said. “And you, too, can build fantastic pictures.”

For a look at the first episode of “The Joy of Painting”, watch below.

Sources: Washington Post | People