Life After TV News
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Tim Ross 30 years doing the weather on TV.
He spent 9 of those years as a meteorologist at WSMV in Nashville, before he quit the job in 2009.
“New management came in and they decided they didn’t like my funky ties and my flamboyant ways,” said Ross, whose on air persona is as vibrant as the abstract art he loves to paint.
He tried to conform to more serious standards imposed by new management but said he was “miserable,” so he left.
But, Ross has found life after news doing art.
He has carved out a niche for himself as a local artist painting scenes of historic Franklin (Tenn) places, crediting Mayor Ken Moore’s wife, Linda, for pulling him in that direction.
Linda Moore approached Ross, asking him to paint their home in downtown Franklin as a gift for her husband.
“The lady across the street, said, ‘I’ve got to have mine!’ So I did hers, and then one thing led to another,” Ross said.
“She [Linda] got me going in a direction that opened up a whole new area I hadn’t thought of,” he said.
His biggest seller is paintings of traditional Franklin scenes, like Meridee’s Breadbasket, and commissioned works of people’s homes.
And after a hiatus from the world of broadcast news, Ross is back in the studio for the morning show at RFD-TV, a rural and agricultural news network, reporting news five days a week.
“It gives me plenty of time to come home and paint and do other things,” he said
In the future, he would like to open an art gallery, or teach art to the elderly.
