SHARON — At the start of a Bob Ross-inspired paint and sip event on Friday at Seven Stars Arts Center, instructor Christine Traverson asked the participants how long it had been since they had last painted.

For some students in the Sharon art class, it had been more than a decade.

Michael Tatham, of Enfield, said he last painted when Bob Ross classes were offered at the old Ames Department Store in West Lebanon, which is now Kohl’s.

“It was fun to do,” Tatham said of the classes.

Before he died of cancer at age 52 in 1995, Ross became famous for his PBS painting instruction program, The Joy of Painting. In 30-minute segments he would complete a full landscape. The show was broadcast from 1983–94.

Tatham said he first watched Bob Ross on PBS and enjoyed his “calm, soft demeanor.”

“He’s really easy to follow,” Tatham said.

In addition to teaching people to paint, Ross also was known for his perm. On Friday, attendees were encouraged to dress like him in order to receive $5 off the $30 cost of the class. No one in attendance took up Traverson on that offer, but she donned a wig for much of the class in spite of the heat.

At the beginning of the class instead of introducing herself, Traverson, a Sharon resident who runs a painting instruction business called The Wandering Paintbrush, said she was going to “pretend to be Bob Ross.”

The participants sat at two tables. Each person had a set of brushes, paint in different colors, a canvas and a jar of water. Some chose to use easels to prop up their work. Traverson stood at the front of the room with her canvas seated on an easel on a stage for the students to see.

Traverson began by asking the participants to wet their canvases. Then, they mixed blue and white to make rolling hills. Next up was another set of mountains in front of the blue ones, this time, green.

They then mixed orange and white to create “sunset-ish colors” for the background, at Traverson’s instruction. Participant Christine Dobrich, of Sharon, said she was going “rogue” and asked for red to mix in with her orange and white.

The next step was to mix white and blue for a blue sky above the sunset.

“You can make it as light or as dark as you want,” Traverson said. “This is your painting.”

As she added green pine trees to her painting, Adrienne Morosini, who splits her time between Sharon and Cape Cod, explained that she had joined the class because she is new to the community.

“I just want to do more stuff here,” she said.

A recently semi-retired social worker, Morosini said it had been a while since she picked up a paintbrush, but her daughter is an artist and went to Massachusetts College of Art and Design. Morosini was hoping some of that talent might be transferable.

Traverson’s 23-year-old daughter Roslyn was in attendance. Although her preferred art form is crochet, Roslyn said she enjoys the process of adding layers in Bob Ross-style landscapes.

“It doesn’t matter where anything goes,” she said.

Traverson offers similar classes at nursing homes, senior centers and businesses throughout the Upper Valley in the fall, winter and spring. Her Sharon paint and sips at Seven Stars take place the second Friday of every month. Next month’s theme will be Halloween.

Nora Doyle-Burr can be reached at ndoyleburr@vnews.com or 603-727-3213.