A national art competition inspired by Bob Ross has brought a Woodstock teenager within striking distance of the semifinals.
Rose Mills, 13, is competing in the quarterfinals of Bob Ross’s America’s Most Artistic Kid Competition, where the top public vote-getter advances to the next round. The contest’s winner will receive $20,000, appear on a special episode of “The Joy of Painting with Nicholas Hankins,” and have artwork displayed at the Minnetrista Museum in Indiana.
Bob Ross was a painter and television host best known for “The Joy of Painting,” a public television series that aired from 1983 to 1994 and helped popularize landscape painting.
For Mills, drawing has long been second nature.
“I love superheroes,” said Mills. “I have my own little guy that I created and he’s just kind of fun to draw so I draw him a lot.”
Her mother, Erin Cadigan, an illustrator and designer at Pearl Moon, said Mills has filled sketchbook after sketchbook with fantasy-inspired work.
The contest began with more than 50 competitors. As of Wednesday morning, Mills was in fifth place in the quarterfinals after advancing through earlier rounds over nearly two months. Voting in the round ends at 5 p.m. on April 9. If she finishes first, she will move on to the semifinals, where voting resets.
The competition offers two paths forward: a public vote and an artist’s pick selected by Nicholas Hankins, a certified Bob Ross instructor. It is hosted by actor David Arquette, who is also a certified Ross instructor. A Bob Ross certified instructor is an artist trained and certified by Bob Ross Inc. to teach the late painter’s wet-on-wet technique. Wet-on-wet is a painting technique popularized by Bob Ross in which artists apply wet oil paint directly onto still-wet layers of paint, allowing colors to blend easily and paintings to be completed quickly, often in a single session.
Since February, Mills has relied on supporters voting online to help her advance. The contest is being run in partnership with Colossal, an online fundraising company, to benefit Blood Cancer United, a nonprofit dedicated to fighting all types of blood cancers.
Cadigan said the exposure has already pushed her daughter to work harder and think more seriously about her art.
“Exposure and participating and learning new things in the field, all of which she’s doing currently by participating in this competition, are already changing her life,” said Cadigan. “I see her working even more so than she normally does producing art and feeling like she has somewhere to display it and do it.”
Mills, who is teaching herself animation, draws inspiration from Dungeons & Dragons and punk music. She said that if she wins the prize money, she hopes to save it for a car or for Pratt Institute, where she hopes to study architecture.
The finals are scheduled to run from April 17 through April 23. The public-choice winner is expected to be announced on or before May 8.
Mia Quick is an editorial assistant at The Overlook. Send correspondence to mia@theoverlooknews.com.