Mark E Shellshear.

I looked into the eyes of the Artist, he was misting over, tears were visible, he could not believe he did not sell one painting. He knew that there was a Gallery charge for no sales and I watched him count off the money. I felt so sorry for him, his work was good, yet with all the promotion we did, nothing sold. His disappointment started at the opening, the two celebrity guests failed to arrive, some excuses, and he was visibly devastated that they did not come. A friend filled in for the opening but there was a real sense of lack. The show opened and closed without a sale and now after all the expense of producing the show, canvas, art materials, frames, transportation to the Gallery from far away, the cost of the Artist reception and he now stood there counting off the Gallery charge for no sales. He was prepared to pay it, he never asked for discount or complained about no sale, I admired that, no excuses, just pay the man. He offered me the money, I said “ No, y...

“Artist, if it was easy, every body would be famous and prosperous.” I talk a lot about selling your Art, using social media, emails, blogs and story telling of your Art, so this post I thought of talking about the one off sale at the Gallery or the art Fair, the local market or even on the street. As much as Artists do not like to talk about selling and I have heard lots of different reason not to sell, in the end if you are an Artist living off you Art work, eventually you have to sell it? I know that selling is not a gift, or being a great talker, it is a learned skill and once a few simple tools are learned selling can be fun. Most people do not want to sell because they are afraid of doing it, feel shy and self conscious, afraid of rejection or just plain believe that their Art will sell itself. So lets explore just one small area of this skill called selling. Now every time an Artist and potential buyer get together a sale is made? Either the Artist sells the po...

“ A struggling Artist needed some free advice?” I was asked by an Artist who does very good work for advice, he is struggling, he works at outdoor venues, art fairs and group shows in Artist run Galleries. He said he had no money and would I help him, I said of course. He wanted to know how he could promote himself on a very limited budget. So I asked him if he has a Facebook page, an email address, he said yes but he was not on Twitter or any other platforms, I said no problem, lets work with what we have. First of all I said he needed to go and buy an Address Book for all the Art shows that he would be part of and begin to collect email addresses. Ask everyone who makes a nice comment or seems interested or buys to sign the guest book. I told him to stop using Facebook for family pics and times spent with friends, but to consider it as his business page. He said his friends have Artist “ like” pages and I said, no do not do that, you want everyone to become your fri...

                           “A brilliant first one man show, a sell out, but what next?” I decided to tell this true story as it will show how Artists sometimes really do not understand what they need to do to grow their Art business and build life long collectors. I just had a fine young Artist do a one man show at the Gallery, unfortunately for him it was not a financial success, he was very disappointed and it reminded me about this Artist that I had known years before. This Artist I had known years ago was quite a talented young man, his paintings were good, not outstanding but very saleable. I got involved after this happened as he needed some direction and advice. He had a large group of friends and his partner was able him help him and together they put on his first one man show, this story takes place in Australia. They scheduled th...