LOS ANGELES, California — Three paintings by Bob Ross, the late host of the popular PBS TV show “The Joy of Painting,” were auctioned Tuesday for more than $600,000.
According to NBC News, the paintings were “Cliffside,” which sold for $114,800; “Home in the Valley,” sold for $229,100; and “Winter’s Peace,” sold for $318,000. They were painted in 1990 and 1993.
The final prices include a charge for the auction house added to the final bid known as the buyer’s premium. The identities of the buyers weren’t immediately revealed.
The money from the sales will be used to assist public TV stations that have been hurt by recent federal budget cuts. In July, more than a billion dollars of federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting was eliminated, WISH Channel 8 reports.
The paintings were the first of 30 by Ross that will be auctioned to raise funds for public broadcasting. Three more Ross paintings will be up for auction at Bonhams in Marlborough, Massachusetts, on Jan. 27, with others to follow in New York and London.
Ross hosted “The Joy of Painting” from 1983 to 1994. Ross used the show to instruct people on how to create paintings, mostly various landscapes. His calm, positive demeanor and his trademark frizzy hair made him a favorite on PBS stations.
Ross spoke often as he worked on air about painting happy little clouds and trees, and making no mistakes, only “happy accidents.”
He died on July 4, 1995, at the age of 52 because of complications from lymphoma. It’s estimated he created more than 30,000 paintings in his lifetime.
(The Associated Press contributed to this story.)
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