Happy Little Trees

If there was only one television show that you had available to watch for the rest of your life, what would it be? For me, it would be Bob Ross and his show The Joy of Painting. Recently, I discovered a cable channel that plays nothing but Bob Ross. I laughed to myself as I turned to it thinking it was so “80’s”. But then, I sat back and watched, and listened. Soon, I sank into a calm, relaxed state as I was mesmerized by his work.

 If you don’t know about Bob Ross, he was an American painter and art instructor that hosted a television series in the 80’s to 90’s. In total, he had more than 300 episodes filmed. Within the 30 minutes of the show, he would instruct the viewer how to create a beautiful landscape painting.

 As I was quietly watching the episode with a warm coffee, I began sinking deeper and deeper into the couch. Then I found a smile on my face as I watched the magic begin. As he mixed white and blue paint, he then took a type of tool that looked like a blade and started carving mountains out of nothing. Each time he added a new element to the canvas, he would thoughtfully pick a color, combine it with other colors, and then right before he touched the canvas, he’d introduce the element, such as “now let’s put some happy little trees here”. I noticed some common themes in each of his 30-minute shows.

 First, he would always start with a blank canvas. Sometimes it was a white canvas, sometimes it was a black canvas, or a blue canvas, or a green canvas. Just like each day we wake up we have a fresh start. No matter what kind of day it is – gloomy, dark, or sunny – it doesn’t matter because each day brings with it a blank canvas waiting for us to create a new masterpiece.

“There’s nothing wrong with having a tree as a friend.”

-Bob Ross

 Next, right before he added something to the canvas, no matter what it was, he would introduce the element as “happy”. Happy clouds, happy trees, happy rocks, happy grass, and happy mountains. Everything was happy. Even when he said the word happy, he sounded happy. I think this is an important lesson around how our thoughts affect our emotions. If we name something as happy, we are more likely to experience happiness with it. But if we are constantly calling something bad or ugly or painful or gross, that is how we are going to feel. I think Bob knew this that’s why he consciously called things happy.

Another thing Bob did regularly was remind us “not to force it”. He told a story of when he was in art school, the instructors were very particular and forceful about how the students painted. He said he’d spend hours on a painting to make it just right. And it was never “just right”. During that time, he lost interest in painting because it was so forced. He decided to change that and found a new approach to make painting joyful again. The lesson he reminds us of is to enjoy the moment. Enjoy life. Have fun. And don’t take things too seriously. 

And finally, Bob felt that there are no mistakes in art and life. I remember watching as he constructed this beautiful landscape of mountains with billowy clouds and a sparkling blue sky. And right in the middle of it all, he takes a dark brown color and draws this thick line down the center of it all. I thought he just ruined the painting! If it was me, I don’t think I could've done that. I would have stopped the painting before that moment and kept it the way it was. But Bob said something interesting. He said as things get closer up, you need more detail. And the interesting things come in the details. Eventually, the dark blob of a line through the painting became a beautiful tree with a thick forest surrounding it. And, believe it or not, it actually made the mountains more majestic. As Bob would say, “there are no mistakes, just happy little accidents”.