Make Sure Your Class and Your Instructor are Bob Ross Certified®!
Remember that soft-spoken white guy with an "afro" hair-style who painted beautiful paintings in a half hour on your local PBS station? He was constantly saying groovy things like, "Happy Little Trees®" and "No Mistakes, Just Happy Accidents®"! Did you know that after he passed away in 1995, he left a training school that certifies instructors to teach his method all over the world?
I'm one of those teachers, and I would like to share with you how to get certified.
The Bob Ross Workshop where certifications occur was actually opened by Bob Ross himself in 1992 in New Smyrna Beach, not far from where he grew up in Daytona Beach, Florida. At the time, Bob had started teaching his famous half-hour painting classes on Public Broadcasting stations, and he was becoming a popular teacher on the road, too. He needed a place to teach his friends and family members to paint, so they could teach others in his wet-on-wet style. The unassuming little studio is located two blocks from the beach in a one-story strip mall. Around the walls, there are many Bob Ross original paintings!
The workshop is currently run by Certified Ross Instructor (CRI) Artist/Trainer Nic Hankins and his wife, CRI Artist Ada Hankins. Three different kinds of in-person 3-week certification programs are offered to artists hoping to become Certified Ross Instructors: Landscape, Wildlife and Floral. Most of the CRI candidates enroll in landscape certification first, and some of those come back another time to get certified in Wildlife and/or Floral. Once certified, CRIs are allowed to teach the Bob Ross Wet-on-Wet method wherever they choose to teach, provided they do things Bob's way, and with Certified Bob Ross brushes, paints and supplies. Bob Ross supplies can be purchased on-line at BobRoss.com. You can find a list of Certified Bob Ross Instructors who teach Certified Bob Ross classes at BobRoss.com, too.
Many of the people who get certified to teach Bob Ross classes do it when they retire, so they frequently teach a relatively short time. Although there have been thousands of Bob Ross Instructors certified since 1992, only a handful in each state, on average, still teach. However, some CRIs like Nancy Cronk at Sipping N' Painting Hampden in Denver, have grown their Bob Ross instruction business every year.
Come find out why so many people are taking certified Bob Ross classes. Take one with us! Check out our calendar at www.SippingNPaintingHampden.com.
As Bob would say, "Bye-bye for now, and G-d Bless".