‘Making art is good for you’: During lockdown I discovered the joy of painting

At the beginning of lockdown I bought a TV after years of being the person ‘who didn’t watch television’ what I found was The Joy of Painting by Bob Ross, and was captivated, writes Christine Manby

Illustration by Tom Ford

At the beginning of lockdown, I bought myself a new telly. I used to be one of those smug people who “didn’t watch television”. My set was more than 15 years old. It could only get two channels – BBC2 and Channel 5 – and then only if I could persuade someone to stand next to it holding the portable aerial aloft in the manner of an eighteenth-century footman lifting a candelabra.

Lockdown changed everything. Though I had a “to be read” pile of books the height of the average 12-year-old, I couldn’t focus well enough to read anything more challenging than a book about lists (L’Arte De La Liste by Dominique Loreau. I recommend it highly). So I gave in and swapped my old TV for a new one. A week later, the TV arrived and instead of two channels, I had hundreds. That old Springsteen song, “57 Channels and Nothin’ On” proved truer than ever but at least I finally had BBC 4. And that is where I found The Joy of Painting.

Happening upon The Joy of Painting for the first time, I assumed I’d found a comedy show. A man with a big beard and even bigger hair, dressed in tight double denim, was splashing paint on a canvas. I expected an unfunny sketch parodying Australia’s former favourite artist and children’s television star. But after a minute or so, it became clear that this painting show was entirely serious. For the next twenty minutes, I watched as the bearded painter transformed the blank canvas into a mountain scene, deftly creating shadows and ski-slopes by merely changing the direction of his paint brush.