Barbara always loved to draw. Her favorite toy as a small child was always a new box of crayons with "sharp" points. She was born and raised in Farmington, California, a very small town with a population at that time of 200. Her father was a cattle rancher and her mother a pharmacist. She and her sister had a wonderful childhood in a house with a white picket fence and attended a two-room school.

When water skiing at a local reservoir, Barbara met her husband Louie, an electrician. They live in Fremont, California and have four children and nine grandchildren who also all live in Fremont.

After her fourth child was born, Barbara started painting and sold her artwork at local craft shows and boutiques and also took lessons from Priscilla Hauser and many other well-known teachers. She then began teaching her friends at her kitchen table.

Barbara earned her CDA (Certified Decorative Artist) from the Society of Decorative Painters in 1979. Although she started with oils, she switched to acrylics with pen and ink and started designing her own packets and teaching seminars, at painting conventions, in local shops and in her home studio. She has a line of packets and authored three books as well as numerous magazine articles.

Designing and teaching is a special Joy in Barbara's life, she feels that to be doing what you love to do, sharing it with others and making so many wonderful friendships along the way is truly rewarding.