What's In A Bob Ross Painting

American artist Bob Ross was a common face on our television screens between 1983 and 1994 when he hosted a half-hour instructional painting show called "The Joy of Painting". He was popular for his calm and gentle demeanor and a soft voice full of encouragement. His frizzy perm and beard were always accompanied by a casual dress sense of shirt and jeans while he delivered stroke after stroke to the canvas.

Even though Ross passed away in 1995, he has become an enormously popular figure on the Internet today. In 2015, Twitch.tv hosted a 9-day marathon of his TV series on what would have been his 73rd birthday and 5.6 million viewers tuned in to watch it. His relentless positivity transformed him into a cultural icon and instructional quotes like "there are no mistakes, only happy accidents", have endeared him to a whole new generation of fans.

So, let's get a little crazy here and take a look at what's actually in a Bob Ross painting. Using data from website fivethirtyeight, we've made this happy little infographic to show what the icon loved to add to his landscapes. Ross once said that "there's nothing wrong with having a tree as a friend" and boy did he like to get as many of those friends into his paintings as possible.