#49 • Bob Ross Alaskan Gold Pan Oil Painting c.1975

Part of December 2025 Premier Auction (live auction by Alaska Premier Auctions & Appraisals)

High bid $12,000.00

Status: Sold

Category: Art

An original Bob Ross oil painting on velvet on a novelty gold mining pan, created early in his career as shown by the date of 1975 en verso. Ross was born in Daytona Beach, Florida, in 1942 and was stationed at Eielson Air Force Base outside Fairbanks from 1970 to 1976, where he began painting and selling his gold mining pans depicting traditional snowy Alaskan landscapes of mountains, northern lights, and snowy cabin scenes enhanced with silver glitter. Ross used the 16th-century painting style alla prima, Italian for 'first attempt' or 'wet-on-wet' technique, a method where wet paint is applied on top of wet paint, as seen when he quickly creates thick, almost three-dimensional mountains, lakes, and snow; the technique is prevalent in this painting, where Ross has signed in the lower right. From the seller "I acquired this Bob Ross gold pan from my late husband. His father was born in Flat, Alaska, in 1932. In 1976 he came across Bob Ross who was painting the gold pan in the Bentley Mall and purchased it. It has been hanging on our wall ever since." Pan measures approximately 16.5" in diameter x 2.25" deep.