Northern Virginia is home to one of the world’s largest collections of original paintings by a single artist: Bob Ross. It’s not housed in a museum. There are no crowds lined up outside. Most people drive right past it without realizing it’s there.
Hidden inside an unassuming warehouse in Chantilly are about 1,000 original Bob Ross paintings. The building also houses Bob Ross Inc., the company that has stewarded the beloved painter’s legacy for more than four decades. More than 30 years after Ross’ death, Northern Virginia remains the center of the Bob Ross universe.
Bob Ross Inc.
For generations of television viewers, Ross will forever be the painter with the signature perm, the soothing voice, and the “happy little trees.” Through The Joy of Painting, which aired from 1982 to 1994, he convinced millions that anyone could learn to paint.
“Talent is a pursued interest,” he often said. “Anything that you’re willing to practice, you can do.”
What many fans don’t realize is that as Ross’ television career was taking off, he partnered with Walt and Annette Kowalski to form Bob Ross Inc. Because the Kowalskis called Northern Virginia home, the fledgling company settled here. Ross did, too, during the busiest period of his career.
“You would never know,” says Bob Ross Inc. President Joan Kowalski, Walt and Annette’s daughter. “We just sort of do the things behind him that keep him propelled in everyone’s heart … and we do it a little bit quietly.”
Fans associate Ross with the snow-covered mountains inspired by his years stationed in Alaska. But while viewers watched him paint majestic landscapes, the business behind those famous canvases unfolded in Northern Virginia.
Even as his fame grew, Ross traveled constantly, teaching painting classes, filming television episodes in Indiana, and promoting his instructional books and supplies. But during much of his career, Ross lived in Herndon, making Northern Virginia the unlikely headquarters of a growing painting empire.
Courtesy Bob Ross Inc.
Was He Really Like That?
The question Kowalski hears more than any other is whether the Bob Ross viewers saw on television was the same man they met in person.
“The answer is absolutely yes,” she says. “He was just like that in real life.”
Ross had a remarkable ability to quietly command people’s attention. He obsessed over every detail — from the size and weight of his paintbrushes to the wording of his instructional books — always asking how he could make painting less intimidating for beginners.
“He was very soft-spoken but very demanding,” Kowalski says. “You couldn’t help but stop what you were doing to listen to him.”
A Prolific Painter
Ross had a simple ambition.
“He used to tell me, ‘I want to be everywhere, Joan,’” says Kowalski.
It turns out he got his wish. Today, Bob Ross appears on T-shirts, coffee mugs, Chia Pets, and socks. His television episodes stream around the world. In Germany, where The Joy of Painting still airs in English, viewers even use his calm narration to help learn the language.
The painter’s appeal crosses generations. Reston resident Mandy Fournier, who grew up watching Ross, introduced his television show to her children during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Our whole family started painting together that summer,” she says. “We now have several of our own Bob Ross paintings that have become a part of what we call our ‘COVID Collection.’”
Like millions of viewers before them, the family discovered that Ross had a way of making painting feel accessible — and fun.
Photo by Dawn Klavon
Behind the Warehouse Doors
All these years later, Bob Ross Inc. oversees a worldwide business that includes art supplies, instructional materials, licensing, and instructor certification. But tucked behind the offices is something even more remarkable: those hundreds of original Bob Ross paintings.
Television paintings, practice canvases, demonstration works, and unpublished pieces fill a climate-controlled warehouse with Bob Ross originals.
A Cultural Phenomenon
Interest in Ross surged in 2021 after Netflix released Bob Ross: Happy Accidents, Betrayal & Greed. The documentary introduced Ross to millions of younger viewers while also casting a critical eye on Bob Ross Inc. Kowalski says the company believes the filmmakers failed to present its perspective.
“It really hurt our feelings because there were a lot of people who didn’t know anything who were weighing in,” Kowalski says. “Bob was portrayed as somebody you could push around. And I’m here to tell you, when Bob wanted to do something a certain way, it would be done that way.”
Courtesy Bob Ross Inc.
The Painter’s Legacy
Ross’ popularity continues to endure. The renewed attention from Netflix introduced the prolific painter to millions of younger viewers who discovered him through streaming, internet memes, and social media. Kowalski believes people are drawn to Ross’ comforting consistency.
“People are craving simplicity and routine,” she says. “They know what they’re getting into when they turn on the TV, and people are just craving it like crazy.”
Although Ross’ paintings are rarely offered for sale, the company donated several to PBS stations to raise money following funding cuts. Just last year, the company auctioned one of Ross’ paintings to benefit Ball State PBS in Muncie, Indiana, where The Joy of Painting was filmed. The painting sold for $320,000.
“He would have been tickled. He loved those people, he loved, loved, loved Muncie, and he loved the station,” Kowalski says. “He would have done anything for them, so we’re super-duper proud about that.”
And so it continues. Every day, thousands of commuters pass that ordinary warehouse in Chantilly without realizing they’re driving by this massive collection of Bob Ross paintings. Behind those doors, the steady work of preserving one of television’s most beloved artists carries on quietly, just as it has for more than four decades.
“I would hope everybody remembers him as an absolute permanent, constant source of the quiet and the hopefulness and the positive that they need,” Kowalski says.
More than 30 years after his death, that may be Bob Ross’ greatest work: convincing millions they can create something beautiful.
Feature image courtesy Bob Ross Inc.
This story originally ran in our September issue. For more stories like this, subscribe to Northern Virginia Magazine.
