Bob Ross was a consummate teacher. He guided fans along as he painted “happy trees,” “almighty mountains” and “fluffy clouds” over the course of his 11-year television career on his PBS show, “The Joy of Painting.” In total, Ross painted 381 works on the show, relying on a distinct set of elements, scenes and themes, and thereby providing thousands of data points.
The top-line results are to be expected — wouldn’t you know, he did paint a bunch of mountains, trees and lakes! — He didn’t paint oaks or spruces, he painted “happy trees.” He favoured “almighty mountains” to peaks. Once he’d painted one tree, he didn’t paint another — he painted a “friend.”. 57 percent of paintings contain a deciduous tree and 53 percent of paintings contain a coniferous tree. 20 percent of paintings contain at least one of each.
Ross’s own mentor was a painter by the name of William “Bill” Alexander. It was Alexander who taught Ross how to complete a full landscape in under 30 minutes. It was Alexander who was the first to host a live painting show, The Magic of Oil Painting, on PBS. It was even Alexander who coined the catchphrase “happy little trees,” now largely attributed to Ross.
In terms of what brush Bob used for painting trees ~ The Bob Ross round foliage brushes have an easy to hold round wood handle and a 1″ or 1/2″ diameter bristle. They are made for painting trees, foothills and scenery. Made out of natural hog hair.
Reference- fivethirtyeight.com, http://www.artsy.net
Tree Weaver 