Bob Ross inspired Fine Arts Friday takes over Falcon Foyer

During lunch on Feb. 23, PHS had a Bob Ross Painting Contest organized by Art teacher Petke. Science teacher Mrs. Clowe, English teacher Mr. Foster, art teacher Shannon Heaton, band and chorus teacher Rogoza, art teacher Nora Schaefer, and Petke competed to demonstrate “The Joy of Painting.” Participating teachers had 45 minutes to recreate a painting from artist Bob Ross’ “The Joy of Painting.”

Fine Arts Friday, according to Petke, came from “Fun Art Fridays” that he did in art classes at his previous schools. At PHS, the goal is to “get everyone excited about the art courses here, to meet the art teachers, and to throw some fun challenge to get people out of their comfort zone.”

For this Fine Arts Friday, Mr. Petke chose Bob Ross, because “Bob Ross is an art icon. He makes being awesome look easy. We all grew up watching his show on PBS.”

During the competition, the teachers tried to recreate Ross’ “Winter’s Grace,” an all blue landscape featuring mountains, snow, and happy little trees. While following the tutorial, teachers painted, shouted, and soon enough, fell behind, which Petke attributed to not starting with paint on the palette.

Science teacher Kathy Clowe said that she was “nervous because there were so many teachers there from the Fine Arts Department… I was super excited and had lots of fun. Once we started painting there was no time to think about anything else.” With all the students watching and talking, the participants had a hard time hearing what colors and tools were necessary. As the episode came to an end, everyone but Mr. Petke failed to finish, because he admittedly “watched the video 12 times,” although also claimed that Ross’ painting speed was “like witchcraft.”

The other teachers replayed the second half of the episode, and finished up soon after. According to Petke, the atmosphere “was high-paced and frantic, full of cheering and a bit of sneering.” By the end, the consensus of the audience was that Mr. Petke had the most similar painting to the original, according to senior Stephanie Kim, but she also stated that all had a rough start and made up for it in the end.