More than 30 years after his death, the work of artist, educator, and public television icon, Bob Ross, continues to engage audiences in the U.S. and around the world.

So when Congress rescinded $1.1 billion allocated for public broadcasting this fall, Bob Ross, Inc. saw a chance to fill some of the funding gap by selling 30 of his

paintings. The first three are set to be auctioned tomorrow. Dima Zane has more on this most

unusual pledge drive for our arts and culture series, Canvas.

You may never guess that hidden in a warehouse in northern Virginia sits some...

Happy accidents.

A small fraction of the 30,000 paintings Bob Ross is estimated to have created in his lifetime.

Many made famous and valuable by his TV show, The Joy of Painting,

Let's do the reflections here.

Which originally aired from 1983 to 1994.

My mom took a class with him when he was nobody,

and she thought he was so remarkable that she went home at night

and told my dad, we need to help this guy because he's really amazing.

Joan Kowalski is president of Bob Ross, Inc. founded in 1982 by Ross, his wife, and

Jones parents, Annette and Walt Kowalski. The company says it's committed to keeping his legacy

alive through the sale of all things Bob Ross and now through an auction.

It took me a couple weeks to decide which were just the best painting.

We caught Kowalski at the warehouse packing up some of the paintings to be shipped for sale by the auction company Bonhams, but not before.

PBS NewsHour is going to see them first.

Selling Ross's work was something Kualski had never thought to consider until Congress

clawed back the corporation for public broadcasting's funding last July.

In the middle of the night when I was sleeping, it just occurred to me.

...