Today we’d like to introduce you to Barbara Mcculloch

Hi Barbara, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?

I never would have believed that everything I ever wanted as an artist has come true or at least is within reach! Today I have the freedom to experiment without restrictions in a large studio attached to my home. My work sells in a charming gallery in the famous art district of Santa Fe and I have students who come to me for mentoring, which absolutely fills my heart.
This didn’t happen overnight, but was a process of continually adding new skills which meant that both the look of my work, and the way to sell it, has continually changed.

As a child, I could draw fairly well, but that was pushed to the side as a hobby while I was employed first as a technical illustrator and then later as a self-employed potter.

Until one day 30 years ago when I saw artists making a living doing what I ‘just knew’ I could do too – if I only had the knowledge of how to use paint! So I bought a how-to book about watercolor and some paints. I began by drawing wildlife in ink and used watercolor to tint the drawings. I showed these to the gallery selling my pots, They displayed them – and they sold!

Then I saw artists with studio/galleries and ‘just knew’ I could do that too! So I sold my little pottery business and opened a tiny rented studio in a tourist town. I shifted into painting watercolors of the local scenes in and around Glacier Park and approached the Park gift stores that had sold my pots and asked to display prints of my watercolors in their stores. And those sold!

I developed a presence in town, joining business and art organizations and also teaching workshops. My studio grew to four rooms and my paintings became larger as I developed more skills. Because people could see my work in town, it became natural to be asked to paint commissions.

I was successful and so busy that my work became repetitive. Not having time to experiment was dimming my creative spirit and after seven years, when I was sinking into depression and alcoholism, I needed to make a change. So I offered ownership of the studio/gallery to friends in exchange for a guaranteed place to show my work for another seven years.

I finally had the luxury of time to focus on healing my body and spirit. Then with free time, I learned to paint in oil and enjoyed working on location as a plein-air artist. Sales involved traveling to art shows as well as continuing to teach watercolor workshops. I thrived having the freedom to choose techniques as they caught my imagination.

Twenty years ago I moved to Colorado and rented another studio space, joining a group of creative artists in town. There I began to dive into experimenting with watermedia, inks and acrylics. Sales happened through our community gallery, art festivals and with teaching.

The opportunity to join a life drawing group gave me time to improve my drawing skills and in a few years, my oil paintings were featuring figures. Those paintings became the opportunity to show at a community center and I was thrilled at the response.

I had married in Colorado and during my husband’s spring and fall breaks, we enjoyed hiking and I always packed art supplies. One year in Santa Fe, visiting galleries, I mentioned to a gallery owner that I was a painter. That chance encounter became my first solo show on Canyon Road at the Brad Smith Gallery. The following year, 2019, when my husband retired, we made the leap of faith to move here and create a new vision for our future – him to have a quiet space to write and me to establish a studio from a large garage.

Although today I approach my work to make art, I have long since realized is that creative time spent focused on my own personal artistic growth and creativity permits the act of artistic creation to etch deeper meaning into my work.


Simply, I like to say that “while artists may be making art, art is actually making the artist”. We artists as humans, beyond our work, become more observant, sensitive, curious and intuitive.


So my journey as a painter was and is still, “one day at a time”, saying yes to opportunities and chasing curiosity.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?

I have heard people say “Hindsight is 20/20” and yes, time has given me some perspective on the challenges I faced. Here is some perspective:

Because my family was not supportive of my passion to study art or assist me with going to college – I grew strong in the desire to support myself financially so that I could have the freedom to create my vision of an ideal life in the arts.

Because I did not go to college or art school, I believed that I was ‘less than’ the artists who had degrees and opportunities to excel with national recognition. But as time passed, I realized that I valued my freedom to experiment, rather than be guided on a path as a star pupil of a famous instructor.

Because I stubbornly chose to support myself, it took me so many more years to reach the time when I could become a successful artist. I traveled a slow but wide path, learning and using many skills that are now available to me.

But this was a long and winding road because I insisted on supporting myself in art and avoided treating my artwork like a repetitive salable product. Every time I developed a ‘look’ that people wanted to identify with me, I resisted it as if it were shackles preventing me from growing.

So, I learned to see my unique personal expression as part of life’s creative adventure. The drive of curiosity in my spirit still insists on following those words, “What If?”

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?

My main areas of expertise are in drawing the figure, painting in watercolor, abstract watermedia/acrylic, collage, impressionistic oil and abstract oil with cold wax medium.

The spirit of connectedness in life and nature is my over-arching inspiration. That spirit travels through each series of my work, as I explore a variety of ways to sing this same song.

My most recent exhibition “This Enchanted Land” honored the high desert of New Mexico with it’s enveloping silence, camouflaged inhabitants and the feeling of spiritual connection that flows through this amazing land. It was created in acrylic and collage, merging figures into abstraction.

I am proud to also offer the following prior series of work in oil:
“Boots on the Ground” plein air and studio impressionistic oil paintings

“Southwest Visions” abstract landscape in oil

“The Human Sublime” abstract figurative series

“Traces in Time and Space” cold wax and oil explorations


My work begins with time immersed in nature, quietly allowing my senses to absorb the experience as fully as possible. These are moments of sublime transcendence and also moments that surprise me with a powerful jolt of the awareness of beauty and connectedness.
I allow these moments in time and place to rest inside me until I feel my hands needing to express my heart with field notes of collected colors and movement of natural line. The inspiration that I receive from life, whether flora or fauna, is the awareness that all life is intrinsically connected.

This feeling of awe runs through me and into my painting, regardless of materials or technique and is usually expressed as interpretive abstraction. Modulated color, whether applied with a lyrical brush or in varieties of surface textures become my favorite way to express my appreciation for the beauty of nature.

The best life advice I ever received guides all my work: “It’s not all about you.” When I remember that my work is a conduit between my inspiring experience and my viewer’s curiosity, it humbles me into taking responsibility to offer the deepest expression of that moment possible. Practically speaking, that advice helps me let go and work with joyful passion and separate the process from the results.

How can people work with you, collaborate with you or support you?

My work may be seen on my website which announces my current activities and events.

I am honored to be represented by Art Is Gallery, 419 Canyon Rd., Santa Fe, NM. This connection allows me to participate in public events on the famous art district of Canyon Road. I frequently draw and/or paint free portraits during these events to help promote the gallery.

Although I have no workshops planned, in January of 2025, I will be accepting individual students to mentor. They may contact me by email for details and to assess a potential fit.

An initial way to discover and experience my teaching philosophy is in my ‘award winning’ workbook, The Unstoppable Artist, Discovering the Artist Inside Yourself. This is available on Amazon as an ebook, and in soft or hard covers.

I also created a free Facebook Group when the book was published and have pinned instruction videos to the page.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.barbaramcculloch.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the.unstoppable.artist/
• Facebook: zhttps://www.facebook.com/groups/90230859714496z
• Other: https://www.amazon.com/Unstoppable-Artist-Discovering-Inside-Yourself/dp/1665723076