Mark E Shellshear.

                                                                 " Gladiators "                                                                  by I Tampinco                                ...

ARTIST........ATTITUDE is everything. I will most likely get criticism for talking about myself here, but I am sure there are many Artists out there, young and not so young who have tasted the very bitter pill of rejection and isolation and I wanted help them to rise above it. I look back now and remember what a daunting prospect it was to try and find a Gallery. As a struggling Artist I rang Galleries to make appointments and got refused. I would cold call Galleries and get rejected. I have written hundreds of Galleries around the World to get either no response at all or if I did get an answer it was a rejection. I found it all a very difficult experience, heartbreaking and defeating. I got to the point that every time I decided to go and try and find a new Gallery I would talk myself out of it as I knew I would be rejected, and so I would not do it as that was the safest option. In this delusion I also believed that one day I would get “ magically “ discovered and th...

ATTENTION to DETAIL                                                             I wrote last week about how presentation counts and that the buyer appreciates attention to detail. I spoke about the young sculptor who bought in the two pieces that I accepted even though I felt that the bases were not finished off well. The young woman took one of the pieces home and had a solid wooden black base put on it and it looked good. On the opening night I placed it on a tall white plinth and it looked great. As the night went on to our great delight the sculpture placed on the new base sold, I was so happy for the young artist who had taken my advice and changed the base and sold her sculpture. The buyer always appreciates the effort that an artist puts into their presentation and really it does not take a great deal of effort to finish t...

ARTIST......FIRST IMPRESSIONS COUNT.                                                                       The last blog I talked about people buying what they like. This blog I want to discuss why some young artists just do not make it. I am dealing daily with many young artists, wanting to make it in the art world and become famous, some extremely talented, some very good capable artists and some who should have listened to the cruel advice of Uncle Joe and become an accountant or something equally as boring. This week I saw some wonderful sculpture it was really nice, different and unique work that showed a developing grasp of the medium, clay and very nice attention to detail. But there was a problem. Now I do not blame the young artist for this entirely, she gets some blame, but I do ...