I recently stumbled across Bob Ross’ painting series from the nineties while trying to decide what to watch on Netflix. I had heard countless jokes about “happy little trees”, especially as an art student (one of my first-year teachers actually brought in a big fluffy wig as a joke while he was teaching a unit about painting).

I want to say I was skeptical about his painting ability for the first few episodes, but in reality it took me about three minutes to be amazed. Every time Ross would use a color that I, an art student, thought looked odd, I would start to doubt him; every single time he proved that the eye-searing coral or the bright yellow could somehow blend seamlessly into the rest of the landscape he was painting and look completely as though it was supposed to be there. It was immensely calming to watch oceans and forests come into being right in front of me.

It wasn’t only the visual aspect of the show that was calming. Ross spoke softly to his home audience, making sure they knew that anyone is capable of painting. I’m familiar with this myself, in that whenever I tell people I’m an art student, a vast majority of them congratulate me or tell me how terrible they think they are at drawing. I’m not sure people who aren’t passionate about it entirely understand this, but drawing or painting isn’t necessarily something you are inherently good or bad at. It takes years of dedication to learn to draw and hundreds upon thousands of hours to perfect your craft. And yes, anyone can draw.

Bob Ross really does make it look easy. If I could paint with that confidence my studio classes would be a breeze. I’m sure he practiced plenty, and there’s some behind the scenes preparations or special techniques I don’t know about, but it’s still pretty amazing to me.

Not only are the paintings beautiful, but his presence on screen is extremely calming to me. He gives off the impression of having a good time, of letting anything that bothers him go and just being at peace with the world and with his canvas. I’d love to be able to capture this feeling in myself more often.

Maybe, just maybe, all it takes is half an hour, some curly hair, and soft, encouraging instruction of someone who believes that absolutely anyone can paint.