We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Barbara Roth a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Barbara, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Risk taking is something we’re really interested in and we’d love to hear the story of a risk you’ve taken.

About 15 years ago, I got my dream job teaching a one week painting workshop in Tuscany. I signed up 4 students to attend my workshop. I was so excited because this would be my first trip to Italy and hopefully the beginning of my career teaching workshops in Europe.

Unfortunately 3 of my students became ill a few days before we were to leave for Italy and could not make the trip. So, I was left with one student, a 60 gentleman to attend my workshop. I felt nervous about going to Italy with someone I did not know very well. Also at the time, there was a health scare about an epidemic of Bird Flu in Italy.
The morning I was to leave for Italy, I was so nervous about the trip I considered canceling. However, I decided to take the risk and travel to Italy with my one student and spend the week teaching painting to him and this turned out to be a wonderful experience which did lead to starting my own art tour company, Anywhere Art LLC. Since then, I have taught 49 workshops in different locations in Europe, so taking the risk paid off.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My business consists of teaching a variety of watercolor and drawing classes and workshops locally in San Diego and other U.S. locations as well as in Europe. I also write and illustrate books on how to paint and draw. One of the things I work very hard on in my classes is getting my students to believe that they can learn to paint and draw. Once I have shown my students that basic drawing and painting techniques are not difficult to learn I feel very proud of the progress my students make and watch many go onto to pursue art and become successful artists.
In my workshops in Europe my mission is to get my students to slow down and observe some of the new scenes that captivate them and then make watercolor sketches of what they observe. I stress that we are creating memories not perfect paintings. I also teach my travel art students to understand the culture and people of the countries we are visiting. My itineraries are slow paced in order to give students time to enjoy the scenery, make new friends, eat new foods, practice a new language as well as paint. I also have seen after many years of teaching art that anyone can learn to paint and draw if they learn the basic techniques and practice them.

How’d you meet your business partner?

I started my own travel art tour business after I worked for someone who was very wacky to work with. He changed his mind 5 times everyday. I encountered him when I was employed by an art retreat venue in France. One of the perks of working for this company was that I could bring along my husband. Since my husband was working and could not get time off I was able to bring a new friend that loved to travel. After she and I observed how this man ran his business, she and I decided we could do a better job running art tours by ourselves. My friend was a brilliant traveler and fearless driver. We went on to create many years successful art tours all over Europe. She remains my travel mentor to this day.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I have had to learn many skills necessary for my business. I have had to learn; to be assertive, believe in my instincts, learn negotiating skills as well as how to listen well to my students and clients needs. I have also had to learn to believe in my capabilities in the face of nay-sayers and I ‘ve also learned how to find the right people to work with and not feel bad when I had to cancel a deal with someone.

Contact Info:

• Youtube: @AnywhereArtwithbarbararoth8674
• Other: instagram anywhereart4u