Advertising junior Frank Bonilla shows off his painting to his friends during a Bob Ross painting night Aug. 24 in the Bluebonnet Ballroom. Bonilla named his finished painting “The Labyrinth of Her.”
Photo by Treyson Abe
As the minutes ticked down to 6 p.m., the tables slowly filled with students. New and returning students sat together as “Bob Ross” began to instruct them in creating one of Ross’ signature paintings.
After a successful first year, the Fellowship of Christian University Students, a Christian ministry on campus, hosted its second Bob Ross painting night from 6 to 9 p.m. Monday. Students trickled into the Bluebonnet Ballroom in twos and threes, slowly filling the tables that dotted the room.
“So I’m dressed up as Bob,” said Graham Spencer, assistant director of FOCUS. “I have practiced and learned one of his YouTube tutorials, and essentially I’m just going to, in-character, lead them through the tutorial as if I was him.”
Spencer led the students to slowly paint a blue sky, a sea and clouds. He embodied the spirit of Ross as he glided his brush across the miniature canvas.
“The fact that it’s a more chill, slow-pace tutorial, and the fact that they can connect with one another and laugh about what they’re making is kind of our big deals,” he said.
Graham Spencer, assistant director of the Fellowship of Christian University Students, paints a scenic foreground as he leads attendees during a Bob Ross painting night Aug. 24 in the Bluebonnet Ballroom. Spencer said he wanted students to connect through the event.
Photo by Treyson Abe
Bob Ross night was the first welcome back event mathematics freshman Ja’Najah Muñiz attended.
As she covered the upper half of her small canvas in blue, Muñiz said that she learned of the event from a FOCUS pamphlet she got when receiving one of the waters they handed out.
She said she wanted to come out and meet some new people.
“It’s nice seeing a lot of people come together,” Muñiz said. “It’s pretty cool.”
Most of the students followed Spencer’s lead: drawing clouds, dark trees, sand and more. But some students decided to take creative liberty.
Attendees follow along with Graham Spencer, assistant director of the Fellowship of Christian University Students, as he paints a mountain during a Bob Ross painting night Aug. 24 at the Bluebonnet Ballroom. There were three sessions, which started at 6, 7 and 8 p.m.
Photo by Treyson Abe
As mountains and trees were added to the canvases around him, advertising junior Frank Bonilla began to experiment with his painting, drawing a gravestone and dark earth.
Bonilla said he was inspired by gothic works and authors, like Dracula and Mary Shelley, when forming his painting. He combined green and yellow to make brown, creating dirt on the bottom of the canvas. Then, he combined black, green and blue, intending to do a tree.
He said that when the branch became too thick, he decided to change it. In its final form, it became a cross in a graveyard.
“In the scene, we have a witch,” Bonilla said. “For me, I see it as a witch who comes to a cross which has blood spattered on it, with her hands covered in blood.”
His finished project, titled “The Labyrinth of Her,” shows a witch tearing up next to a cross, he said. The background is orange, representing the sun or damnation, and has crows flying across it.
“Whether it be her mourning or her confessing a sin, almost guilt or sacrificial, we don’t know, but that’s all there is to say,” Bonilla said.
Electrical engineering senior Kamaal Bellinfantie paints a scenic picture during a Bob Ross painting night Aug. 24 in the Bluebonnet Ballroom. Bellinfantie described his painting as something from the weather channel that features a nice set of clouds.
Photo by Treyson Abe
Biology freshman Yara Allaham decided to take a deeper look at the finer details of the painting, she said, focusing on the greenery.
“I went into the field and I drew the flowers,” she said.
Her painting had purple and pink streaks as the background with bright, small flowers on the bottom of the painting. She said that when picking the colors from her tray, it was important to combine them into something more beautiful.
“It all comes together and forms these beautiful colors,” she said.
After the students finished their masterpieces, they approached the stage to show them off on the projector. Allaham presented her painting to loud clapping.
@atclements03