Barbara McCann was born and raised in western Pennsylvania. She began her artistic endeavors with drawing as a child, and then with painting in her teenage years. At the age of 18, she took a four-year apprenticeship in architectural illustration and design, which set the stage for a career in art. McCann explored a variety of mediums and methods for landscape and portrait painting. She studied oils with acclaimed figure painter Marilyn Bendell.Barbara McCann created scenes that the viewer felt he or she could walk right into.Her use of the palette knife added a textural level to her images, which contributes to the overall impression of liveliness. This heavy impasto technique imbues objects and figures with an air of solidity and dimension. It is a technique well suited to her impressionistic style. Barbara's love of light, use of rich, saturated color, and application of heavily textured paints mark her as a heir to the impressionist's ideals-to create works that concentrate on the feelings a scene evokes rather than the accurate reproduction of "reality." Light, shadow, color, texture, and perspective are the fundamental elements Barbara used to create visions of warmth and wonder, full of life and light.While under Bendell's tutelage, McCann discovered the works of Nicola Simbari, an Italian artist whose vision and style has been an enduring inspiration for her. She worked to develop a more fluid, translucent presentation in her art. At Bendell's suggestion, she took up watercolors, studying with renowned artists, Valfred Thelin and Charles Reid. She melded her fine art talents with her illustrative work by painting architectural renderings in watercolors, which caused a sensation among her clients. In the mid eighties McCann returned to oils as her primary medium, using watercolors solely for sketches of landscapes and people. McCann's skills in art and architectural illustration led to an appointment as an instructor with the Ringling College of Art and Design from 1983 to 1993 at what is recognized as one of the finest art schools in the country, painting for her galleries both here and abroad. Her final work is represented by Mary Martin Gallery in Charleston, SC and Naples, FL.