by Blake Herzog, Photos courtesy of Tamara Holcom
Tamara Holcom is Greater Prescott’s lone certified Bob Ross painting instructor and one of only 10 statewide. She fully embraces that identity, carrying on the legacy of her first teacher.
“I started painting, I want to say in the mid-’90s, when I was seeing Bob on TV, and at the same time my former father-in-law, who was an esteemed artist in Ireland, would come over and I was watching him paint,” she says.
“At the same time I was watching Bob Ross paint, and Bob just makes you feel like you can do it, so I said to myself, I think I could do that. So, I started taking some Bob Ross classes at the local Michael’s.”
After completing a three-week course in the same house where Ross filmed his PBS show in Muncie, Indiana, Holcom began teaching the classes out of her home studio in Prescott Valley but now has her own gallery, Prescott Fine Art. It’s at Pine Ridge Marketplace, in suite 232 across from Bath and Body Works. It outgrew its original location in the mall after a year and moved to a space more than twice as big in October 2024.
Ross died 30 years ago at age 52, but his reputation as a calming yet effective instructor has grown exponentially through constant reruns of episodes from his Joy of Painting. He and his Afro are iconic enough to inspire a Chia Pet planter, along with lines of art supplies, books, merch, a network of instructors and more.
The classes are designed for each student to finish their own landscape oil painting in one four-hour session. The $75 fee includes all supplies. Prescott Fine Art’s Facebook page is dominated by photos of students posing with their completed works in front of a life-size Bob Ross cutout.
“People will walk out of here with a painting in four hours that, a lot of times, they never thought they could do,” Holcom says. “They’ll leave here with tears in their eyes and say, ‘I never thought I could do this. I wanted to do it, but I never thought I could.’ It’s just following simple instructions and yes, there is some practice involved, for sure, and Bob would even say ‘if you want to get good at something you have to practice it,’ but the more you do it the better you get, and you keep evolving.”
The Bob Ross classes are just the tip of the palette that the busy Prescott Fine Art location has to offer.
Many students continue their evolution with Holcom: “A lot of people will get started with Bob Ross classes and then if they want to become more proficient painters, we kind of take them up through the ranks and introduce them to what’s called Paint Time, where they can leave their painting here, they can use all my good oils, my good brushes, and they can paint whatever they want.”
She brings in five additional instructors to teach classes for different forms of painting including watercolor, acrylic, paint pouring, alcohol ink and colored pencil for those who want to explore a different medium. That diversity also shows up on her gallery’s walls, which she leases out to her instructors and dozens of other local artists, including herself, to sell their pieces.
“We have all different types of artists in here, all different types of art, all different types of artisans in here and different types of painting techniques,” she says. The offerings go beyond the canvas to include woodwork from her husband Mel Holcom, photography, glass, ceramics, stone and jewelry, among others. The gallery also sells a large selection of art supplies.
Holcom said about 600 students have passed through Prescott Fine Art, coming from all walks of life. “A lot of it is families, a lot of couples, they come in wanting to do something together, and everything in between, I have 16-year-olds and 90-year-olds.” There’s also an eight-week summer camp for kids. For more information visit www.prescottfineart.com.
