Where Is the Bob Ross Original Painting Market Today, What Is Driving It, and What Are the Largest Influences of This Market?

Let me preface this latest update with the fact that I used to buy Bob Ross original paintings for $2,000–$6,000 nearly 15 years ago. At the time, many disputed that a Bob Ross painting could be publicly owned and that he didn't sell paintings, or that Bob Ross Inc. owned all of the paintings. We are now in an era where the demand is outweighing the supply, and that demand continues to grow. I clearly do not have a crystal ball, and of course I wish I would have kept all of those earlier purchases. At the time, every purchase and every sale was a record.

How Would I Describe the Current Market?

I would continue to place this market in the maturing stage. I continue to tell collectors and sellers of Bob Ross paintings that the growing demand will continue due to a few factors.

1. The generation that grew up watching Bob Ross is starting to enter their high-earning and collecting stage. The more wealth that enters this population will continue to increase the demand on the finite amount of Bob Ross paintings.
2. All of the recent headlines are alerting those currently holding a painting and wanting to sell. It is a gold rush to liquidate their paintings for values they could have never dreamed of. The headlines have been happening for some time. The largest headline was our release of Season 1, Episode 1 in 2023, which created the largest viral moment in art for 2023.
3. Following this, a few other stars aligned that included a Topps card deal with Bob Ross baseball cards. This was key to again introducing Bob Ross to the massive card-collecting population.
4. After this, Bob Ross Inc. started to donate paintings to help raise funds for PBS. These auctions generated major sales, including the first-ever painting to sell for over 1 million dollars on the John Oliver show for $1.04 million dollars.

All of these moments did a few key things. They increased the headlines, they solidified the value of Bob Ross. We are now entering a stage in the market where a vast majority of people that would buy a Bob Ross painting now know that they can.

Is Bob Ross an Emerging Artist?

In a sense, I would consider him an emerging artist. Up until recently, it was undiscovered that you could purchase an original painting created by Bob Ross.

What Are Some Indicators That Support the Demand of Bob Ross?

You have a large demographic of kids that grew up in the '80s that are now starting to accumulate wealth and becoming serious collectors. This demographic is also very aware of the current shift of what a museum tells us is demanded and what we feel is demanded. Popularity by the masses is now being shown without manipulation from museums on who we should collect. Social media platforms and engagement are showing us what we like as a population. This movement of value in art that isn't within the establishment has been growing for years. This movement outside of the museum was supercharged by Banksy, and now we are seeing Bob Ross emerge as the people's artist.

As of the date of this article, there are over 816 million lifetime video views on the Bob Ross YouTube channel. There are over 6.59 million subscribers.

When Twitch ran a marathon of his episodes from October to November 2015, there were 5.6 million unique views and over 7.6 million chat messages.

If you were to use Google's keyword tool and look up the total search volume of Andy Warhol, Picasso, or Vincent van Gogh, you would find that there are more global searches for Bob Ross on a monthly basis and have been for years.

Bob's work also crosses over to memorabilia, where records continue to be broken. Dorothy's slippers from The Wizard of Oz sold for $32.5 million dollars. Again, if you were to check Google search records, you will find that Bob Ross is more popular than The Wizard of Oz.

Do I Think That Once the Current Collecting Demographic Ages, Will the Market Persist?

Yes, and the data supports this. Bob Ross's popularity continues to transcend generation after generation. And in a time when self-belief and kindness are needed, Bob answers that with just a view of his episodes or a painting. Bob didn't teach us how to paint. He took something that seemed impossible and taught us to believe in ourselves. He taught us that making mistakes is part of the process. And most importantly, we can be the person we want to be. Yes, people are collecting their childhood, but that childhood is also within the children of today as Bob continues to transcend generation after generation.

One of the many 2023 interviews regarding Season 1, Episode 1 challenged my valuation of Bob Ross paintings. This is worth a watch, as it explains the movement that is happening 3 years later.

Watch the CBS News interview: Bob Ross’s first TV painting

For a while, many collectors chose not to use the comps of the charity auctions and rightfully so. They felt that they were inflated due to the charity portion of the sales. Fast forward, I can say that our non-charity auctions have broken several records with collectors demanding paintings. We have sold episode pieces in the $600,000–$750,000 range. We have had a number of non-episode sales in the $150,000–$300,000 range earlier this summer, netting our sellers $120,000–$280,000. And most recently, we have seen non-episode pieces, not for charity, auction off in the $100,000–$400,000 range, netting sellers $60,000–$280,000.

Comparable Public Sales

Bonhams: Mountain Summit (1988)

Bonhams: Alaska Landscape (1978)

Bonhams: Untitled (Mountain Lake Landscape) (1994)

Goldin: Original Bob Ross painting for an MTV commercial

What I Predict Next

Over the next year, we will see even more sellers come forward to cash in. The charity auctions will come to an end. After all of this settles, the entire collecting population will realize what I realized years ago: most of these paintings no longer exist. They were discarded to never be found again. Over the years, we have had sellers present us with authentic pieces that ended up at Goodwill locations and another collection of 7 paintings that were stored in a shed in the backyard of a Florida home for nearly 20 years. Unfortunately, most of the paintings are no longer with us. And when I say most, I mean the vast majority. Since 2009, I have seen no more than 300 total paintings. The thousands of paintings that were painted are gone. Once the collecting public realizes what I already know to be true, we will once again see another surge in demand.

The One Variable in Supply

The collection within Bob Ross Inc. is the one variable. It is a larger collection. The collection contains more paintings than have ever been sold on the secondary market. If that collection were to be released to the public at once, we would undoubtedly see a reset in the market. Although I feel this reset would only be temporary. It is estimated that Pablo Picasso has no less than 2,500 works and maybe closer to 4,500 works that are worth over 1 million dollars, and Andy Warhol is estimated to have 1,200–1,800 works worth over 1 million dollars.

Regardless of what is rumored on the internet, this market is small, but demand is large. With the recent public auction price surge, we are seeing this emerging artist grow in value.

Notable public records continue to pour in through auctions and our private sales and online platform that sprawls from our ecosystem of modernartifact.com, our Instagram page, our strong SEO results, Google.

If you are considering collecting a Bob Ross original painting or looking to sell, we would love the opportunity to tell you a bit more about our services and why it makes most sense to work with our low-fee gallery.

Although exciting, auctions continue to bring variability and large disparity in final value. When combined with buyer, seller, and auction fees, a total of no less than 40% is often taken by the auction house. As a seller, I would always exercise patience and proper positioning online with an established gallery that can add value. As a buyer, I would encourage you to keep an eye on auctions and use auction results to help with your negotiations. We often have sellers that come to us and are simply looking to net close to what they would at auction. This can save both the buyer money and land a predictable sale for the seller.