My first painting by Grant Pinkney

I loathe Bob Ross, but there it is; you don't have to agree with me! And it's always worth saying that he did encourage a lot of people to start painting. It's hard to assess this without putting my neck out, but for a first painting you've gone in with strong colour, quite subtly mixed (especially in the sky), you have a good basic composition, and if my first painting had looked anything like this at all I should have been very pleased indeed. (It didn't; and I wasn't.) So long as you a) paint from your own experience and surroundings; b) if you work from photos, make them your own (at least when starting out - interpreting someone else's photograph is not easy); c) take inspiration from all sorts of different artists while developing your OWN style, you won't go wrong. (I know a lot of people get confused, even upset, by the criticism of Ross, by the way: it's not that his work lacks passion, it's that he always, basically, painted the same thing, that part of North Alaska where he was stationed as a serviceman: and so many (all?) of the "Certified Ross Artists" just copy those scenes endlessly and teach nothing else. There are some technical issues too, but they have less to do with the man himself and more to do with the company that markets BR products.)

Thank you very much, I'm definately going to try and find my own style and paint things that I've seen or taken a photograph of, I can only thank bob Ross as he's the reason I've got into this, once again thank you for your feedback

A lot of what Robert says is very true and is good advice, especially trying to develop your own style of working. I would describe the late Bob Ross (died 4th of July 1995) as a "method" painter, something that evolved from his earlier style as a "normal" artist, if one can describe him as such. He simple used the same methods of painting trees etc in different landscapes. ( Alaska where he lived before moving to Florida)

I've definately taken it on board but painting "happy little trees" is great way to start however I do want to develop my own style, just looking for helpful tips, if you know of any artists that are good too look at and maybe learn a little from

A good place to start with looking at artists is in your local gallery. spend time looking at what interests you and try and see how they achieve what they do. Images in books and on the computer are ok but with the actual painting you see the brush marks warts and all. If you can join an art group that has demos and activities and maybe invest in a few lessons that are NOT Bob Ross. Try and do something every day and just play with colour and paint. You've made a good start but it's time to move away from Bob.