https://www.twitch.tv/, a website where you can watch people stream video games both professionally or from their bedroom, decided to pay tribute to Bob Ross and celebrate his show The Joy of Painting. The celebration was to commemorate the 20th anniversary of his death in 2015 and what would have been his 73rd birthday.

Their celebration came in the form of a 24/7 marathon of The Joy of Painting; a non-stop viewing party of all 31 seasons. The marathon lasted nine days, starting on Ross’ birthday October 29th.

The marathon was an extraordinary success, with millions of viewers coming together, a lot of them reliving childhood memories, to watch Ross paint beautiful landscapes. Twitch reported that the marathon garnered 5.6 million viewers.

The marathon was such a successful celebration, in fact, that Twitch has decided to continue celebrating Ross’ relaxing and inspirational painting by hosting a viewing party of a single season of The Joy of Painting every Monday on their new ‘Creative’ section of the site. They have also announced that The Joy of Painting full marathon will be an annual event, starting 29th October every year, with a portion of the ad revenue going to multiple charities, including St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

This is such a beautiful way to pay tribute to, and to continue to celebrate, what many consider as a national treasure of the United States. Spreading the joy of what Bob Ross taught, to both an old audience and a new one, is an amazing way to keep someone’s memory alive.

Together, we can all paint some happy little clouds.

You can watch Bob Ross’ The Joy of Painting every Monday on the Bob Ross Twitch channel; https://www.twitch.tv/bobross