Hello and welcome to Episode Forty Two of Page Turn: the Largo Public Library Podcast. I'm your host, Hannah!
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The English Language Transcript can be found below
But as always we start with Reader's Advisory!
The Reader's Advisory for Episode Forty Two is Incense and Sensibility by Sonali Dev. If you like the sound of Incense and Sensibility you should also check out: While We Were Dating by Jasmine Guillory, The Heiress by Molly Greeley, and When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon.
My personal favorite Goodreads list Incense and Sensibility is on is Sense and Sensibility - Inspired by and Sequels to.
Happy Reading Everyone
Today’s Library Tidbit comes to us from the Sarah the adult programming librarian and is all about learning to paint, specifically painting along with Bob Ross and the Joy of Painting.
Bob Ross was born in 1942 in Daytona Florida. He joined the Air Force in 1960. While he was stationed in Alaska he took a USO painting lesson and the painting bug bit hard. When he left the Air Force Bob moved back to Florida and was introduced to the wet-on-wet painting technique through a class by William Alexander. William Alexander was a German painter who’s The Magic of Oil Painting ran on PBS from 1974-1982. William Alexander created the specific style of wet-on-wet that made Bob Ross famous and as Bob Ross became more famous his relationship with William Alexander became more strained. William Alexander believing that Bob Ross betrayed him by copying the technique. He also claimed that Bob Ross had borrowed some of the verbal patter that we all recognize today.
The wet-on-wet technique that both painters use is a modern take on an old technique that’s also called alla prima. This is a technique that requires fast oil painting as the entire painting needs to be finished before the first layer of oil paint dries. Painting alla prima means adding layers of oil paints on top of each other. This style of painting allows for the ability to create fast oil paintings as you do not have to wait for the previous layer to dry. It also allows for some mixing of colors on the canvas.
Bob Ross tweaked the wet-on-wet technique by adding a layer of thinned white paint across the entire canvas before starting on the painting. This primes the canvas for quicker alla prima painting. Priming the canvas in this way would allow Ross or Alexander to paint a landscape within the 30 minute run time of their shows.
Bob Ross was passionate about sharing his love of painting. He started The Joy of Painting on public television in 1982. To promote the show Ross would tour the country doing live classes at shopping malls and art stores. As the popularity of the show grew so did the audiences at the classes.
Most of Ross’s success and appeal was persona, almost everything people love about Ross was a carefully put together persona. This is not to say that he was not being genuine, but that Ross wanted to make sure that his show was accessibly, enjoyable, and timeless. He specifically chose to wear jeans and button-down shirt because he believed that it would be a timeless look for future viewings of the show. Ross also consciously spoke as if he had only one viewer so that that everyone watching felt that he was teaching just them.
The biggest appeal of Bob Ross for people was his calm and smooth voice. It is often joked that Bob Ross started painting ASMR. ASMR stands for autonomous sensory meridian response and is a tingling sensation, typically from the scalp down the back, that is triggered by some people due to specific stimuli. Not everyone experiences ASMR, but a popular genre of ASMR videos include brush strokes and soft calming whispering. Both of which are key facets of The Joy of Painting.
Bob Ross was also unrelentingly positive. Something that is best shown in quotes,
