Purple Mountain Range

I had the pleasure of tuning into Season 26 Episode 10 of Bob Ross’s Joy of Painting show: Purple Mountain Range. His positive vibes never fail to bring a smile to my face. I did not paint anything while I watched this episode but yet I still enjoyed watching it. Here are some of his sayings I found touching and my biggest takeaways:

1. “We dont make mistakes, we have happy accidents”

This is a great outlook to have in life. Seeing mistakes as something fixable, positive, and full of potential is so transformative. To be able to look at a mistake and see it as a “happy accident” with the potential to be pleasant or beneficial is so much more productive. Putting energy you would have spent being upset about a mistake into seeing it as an opportunity allows for more productive use of your energy. Turning an accidental mark you made on a canvas into a tree or a bird is such a positive transformation of mistakes into art.

2. “This is our world and we can do anything in our world that we want.”

Your art, your writing, your music, your poetry is your world. Your art is your creation and as such you should cater to nothing but yourself. You shouldn’t cater to popular norms or what you think others want, but do what you want. Your canvas is your world to paint as you desire.

3. Never in your life be satisfied with a painting that you do, because as long as you’re not totally satisfied then you’ll continue to strive to be better.

Bob Ross says that if you painted for a million years there’d be one more thing that you could still learn. In his world practice doesn’t make perfect. Practice is never-ending, practice is eternal because learning is eternal. Being discontent with a piece of work will allow you to continue to work with the hopes that your masterpiece, your hit single, your best poem is still awaiting to come out of you. This outlook allows you to never stop doing what you love. This concept can be applied to so much more than just art. Being able to continuously try to strive for more and not being comfortable where your at is very key to success.