Come Hither Painting

Barbara L. McCulloch, artist, instructor and author works from her studio in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She has a strong background in both creating and teaching drawing, painting and portraiture in a wide range of media and style. Her work experience began as an illustrator and art director in the aerospace industry in Arizona. After fifteen years, she pursued a dream to return to her home state of Montana to live in the mountains, building a wholesale production pottery business. Surrounded by nature, she taught herself to paint in watercolor and sold her pottery to open a studio/gallery in Kalispell, Montana. This became the start of her teaching career in 1990 as she affiliated with the local college and Glacier Park for several seasons, taking students on field exploration art journeys and teaching private workshops. She left Montana to live in Fort Collins, Colorado where she joined Poudre Studio Artists, an artists owned studio/gallery, maintained a public studio and became the gallery director in 2010. Following the sale of the building, she worked in her home studio, exploring mixed media and continued to teach both privately and in workshops. Several years ago, she moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico with a dream of expanding her teaching reach through workshops. However, the pandemic changed her plans and she placed her teaching and mentoring into a course and a workbook, “The Unstoppable Artist”. She encourages students to ground their art in honest personal expression by working from the inside-out, first discovering that the passion of a heart-centered purpose is a motivator to dispel creative blocks, learn new skills and weave together the realization of a fully empowered and creative life.