Often before Thaddeus and I go to bed, we put on The Joy of Painting with Bob Ross. It’s like a sedative. A big honking tree in this picture makes it a Bob Ross photo for me.

What Makes A Bob Ross Photo

If you’ve ever watched this gentle man paint, you know he’ll often get to the end of a painting and say, “This will drive my director crazy, but maybe we need a big ole tree!”

Honestly, while I love the gentle nature of the now-deceased Bob Ross, I never really liked his artwork very much. Nothing wrong with it. Just not my aesthetic style.

His appeal was much more like the appeal of Mr. Rogers. Gentle, supportive and loving. If you get the chance, the Netflix documentary about Bob Ross is sad, but interesting.

Every once in a while I take the same kind of “big ole tree” risk in my own work. Normally, I would have not included that big ole tree in the feature photo. Or I would have cropped it out. But I think it adds to the photo. Regardless of whether it does or not…it made me happy. My own “happy little tree.”

Current Knitting

Another aesthetic example of risk taking is in my current project.

I’ve finally gotten to the place in the pattern where the 3rd color comes in. It’s very subtle so far.

This shimmery oyster/tan color doesn’t pop like the blue and the red. But I think it will be perfect in the overall design. Honestly, it has to work, because I won’t be ripping out mohair yarn.