AJ and I were kidless this Christmas. Sometime between realising we can have sushi for dinner and the little pang that we weren't going to see the cherubs on the day, we looked at each other. "So, what are we going to do?"

Fortunately, I had an answer. I've been binging Bob Ross on Netflix and decided I wanted to paint. With oils. For the first time ever. Happily for me, my wife's the indulgent type.

Two days before Christmas we went to the local art supply store, and spent more than we intended on brushes, canvases, paint thinner, linseed oil, palette knives, and more. We didn't even wait the two days to break out the first canvas and try our first painting — Sunset Aglow. For the uninitiated, here's what it's supposed to look like.

bob ross sunset aglow

Our attempts weren't perfect, and there was a lot of shouting at old Bob when he went zooming off and created something that looked effortlessly good, but for the most part we kept up.

Ta-daaaaaa!

We learnt pretty quickly about some of our mistakes. Less is definitely more when it comes to the first wash of paint on the canvas (hence my smeared sky). Also, thin paint sticks to thicker paint!

Here's AJ's attempt at the same picture. I covet her mountains.

bob ross sunset aglow aj rose

Stay tuned because now we've been bitten by the Bob Ross bug, there are many more paintings in our future.


Don't forget the Blowing It series is still on sale. Check it out now!

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Categories: Living the Dream

Kate Aaron

Born in Liverpool, Kate Aaron is a bestselling author of LGBT romances. Kate swapped the north-west for the midwest in October 2015 and married award winning author AJ Rose. Together they plan to take over the world.