A Woman (Our New Hero) Is Working Her Way Through The Joy of Painting

We are big Bob Ross fans here at mental_floss. From his work, to his hair, to, well, just about everything about him (seriously, everything), we’re Ross devotees through and through. But we may have found someone even more loyal to the cause. A woman named Nicole Bonneau is painting her way through Ross’s PBS show, The Joy of Painting.

In an interview with The Huffington Post, Bonneau says she got the idea for the project after a particularly blissful binge-watch of the show with some family around the holidays. While it began as a casual musing, the many appeals of the project soon convinced Bonneau to embark on the journey. Among them? It’s a long-term stress-reliever and creative outlet, and art is in her wheelhouse (she studied painting at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design).

Of the 403 paintings from the show, Bonneau is only through 13 (that’s all of the first season)—a pace she predicts will get her to the end in about 10 years. While she says she wasn’t a big fan of Ross before the project, Bonneau did tell HuffPo that she remembers seeing the mild-mannered painter on TV when she was around 12 years old, and he had inspired the purchase of an oil painting set.

We can relate to Bonneau’s love of Ross’s incredible way with words. She told HuffPo: “My favorite thing is when out of nowhere he’ll say something incredibly dark. It’s so unexpected. For example, I feel like whenever he paints an old cabin, he always makes up some story about what happened to the owner of it. Sometimes has a bad drinking problem and that’s why he doesn’t take care of his house. Sometimes he falls into the river and drowns. It’s very interesting.”

You can follow “Almighty Painting” on Tumblr, Twitter, and Instagram, and if you’re feeling inspired to follow in Bonneau’s brush strokes, you can find The Joy of Painting episodes on YouTube and Hulu.