Mark E Shellshear.

Whose fault was this, who was to blame? I blamed everyone, the Gallery, the Gallery staff, the collectors and of course the public because no body came. The truth was the fault was mine, yes Artist, it was my fault. No body came because no body knew me. Obscurity is worse than no money. No collectors came because they did not know me or my paintings, I was unknown. If you are unknown, then you are unknown! I had been painting for thirty years and was unknown but to a few loyal friends and collectors. No body knew me, unknown. I had blamed everyone but the fault was all mine. I had two choices, I could climb back into my dark place of isolation and obscurity and blame the whole world for my failure or I could take responsibility for my own failure and change myself? I decided after some soul searching to make some changes, I forgave myself and began to rebuild my life. I thought I could never learn new things but you can. The key to...

As an Artist one of the most difficult and scariest things that we with have to deal with is change. No body likes change. Why can't things stay the way they are? As much as we fight change, it is inevitable. The world is changing before our eyes, we are changing before our own eyes. If change is inevitable, then we need to embrace change and change? Now you can fight the changes and become angry, critical and bitter? Or you embrace change and make your self better The choice is yours, and you will make a choice, either by doing nothing and becoming bitter or by embracing change and becoming better.

If you are looking at a number choices that you have to make for your Art career. Something that will make you remarkable and remembered, compared to something that is easy to do, choose the hard and scary way. Why? If you take the easy road, you will not grow, you will not stretch yourself and you will not achieve greatness. The easy road is well traveled, nearly everyone is on it and leads to the average, numbness and conformity. The hard and scary road, not well traveled leads to growth, learning and greatness. Being scared is normal, but seeing it as a challenge is not. What you are scared of just may be the opportunity you have been waiting for. Do not let the shadows and that negative voice in your head rob you. Embrace scary, embrace change, embrace opportunity. The very thing that you are scared of, is the very opportunity you have to make a difference and bring change, growth and success into your life.

Art can be one of the most wonderful ways to make a living, especially if you are successful. Wonderful sell out shows, stunning reviews and collectors chasing you to own one of your paintings at any price. Sound to good to be true? For a small few it is a reality, for most it us a dream never to be fulfilled. Why would you say that? Because there is very little room on the top of the mountain and the price to get there is extremely high. Well then where does that leave the majority of Artists? Many Artists can, if it is what they want, carve out a very good living in the Arts, but and there is always a but, it does not come easy. Most successful Artists spend years unknown and selling very little. Most successful Artists spend years trying to get a good Gallery that will represent them properly. There are lots of Galleries who will try and sell you but few who will represent you and that takes time and unfortunately most Artists have their eyes fixed on the next sale r...

The question I am asked often is why keep going on when sometimes it feels that you are going backwards rather than forward? My simple answer to that is, “ Because I refuse to give up and accept defeat.” Turning up everyday is an attitude as well as an action. Plugging away every day, takes patience and determination and a belief in yourself, your Art work and talent. So artist turn up everyday and do what needs to be done and out of this discipline will comes the "miracle." [success] People want the “miracle” without the hard work and often the hardest work is just turning up everyday and painting, even when you doing feel like it or want to. The miracle comes when, you turn up every day, you are patient and determined to never give up and work hard while you are in the studio. Perspiration precedes inspiration. Turning up every day and working hard precedes the miracle. Have a productive day. Mark Shellshear. Art consultant. mark@shellshearmedia....

Thought for today, Tuesday 23 Feb., 2016. Its a beautiful new day, use your time wisely, you will never get to live this day again. Time is so precious don't waste it, you cannot make up time, once its gone, its gone. So, believe in your own creativity and yourself and do not loose sight of why you are doing what you are doing and yes there will be disappointments, that is part of life. No body said it would be easy and that there would not be highs and lows in the Art business, every day is different and challenging. So put on a smile and start painting and if someone admires your work, thank them for considering you to be a good artist. .. Stay positive and stay true to yourself and use your time wisely. Have a great day. Mark.

Thoughts for Artists. I write a lot about the need to work hard, very hard, have goals and never give up and I do believe in all of that and I practice what I preach. I am not telling anyone to do something that I am not doing and doing more. If you are like me and love what you do, it is not work, it is good fun and I enjoy it. Just a little caution though, beware of what you become in pursuit of what you want. Don't become so obsessed with something that it costs you to much, success has a price and that price can be very high. Do not sacrifice family and friends in pursuit of success, that is price to high to pay. The love of another person for you is very, very important, imagine obtaining all the success you desired and having no one to share it with, that is a very empty feeling, I know it. Success is important but not at the expense of loved ones, that is to high a price. As you are building your life towards your goals take those you love with you o...

There are so many people ready to give you free advice and constructive criticism, but please in most instances back yourself over the advice of others. Free advice is exactly what it is, they do not have to live with the consequences of the advice that they give you, you do. Failing and rejection are temporary but giving up is permanent, that's a life change you do not want, never give up.. Friends and family may have good intentions but you live with the results and remember, people come and people go, but you must live with you always. Do not associate with fake and plastic people, life is to short to waste it with people who wear a mask. If you are not happy with where you are right now, then change. If your world is not what you want right now, then change it. If you change, your whole world will change. The decision is yours. It has been said to me recently, that it is easy so say change but hard to do? No it is not. Start with small changes, read a book inst...

I realize that for many Artists it seems quite strange some of the subjects that I talk about and also the subjects that I do not talk about. I am of the opinion that it is not my place to tell Artists what to paint or how to paint or whether a painting is good or bad, I will let the market make that decision. Art is so personal and each Artist has their own thoughts on what is best for them and what they should or shouldn't paint and what materials they should use. My concern is for the other side of the Artist life, the Art Business and how so many are not prepared for what they will experience in it and so many good people have been hurt in this sometimes brutal business. I suppose I am really concerned for Artists as I personally know what it is like to fail in this business and how hard it is to rebuild your Art career and be successful. I get told by many that Art is so personal and that Artists paint from their heart and souls and I do und...

Whenever an Artist decides to break away from the herd and do things differently they will get criticism. I know this because I have accumulated my fare share of critics. These people do not want change, but to be successful you have to embrace change. Change is inevitable, whether you like it or not things change. If you are the first in your group to do it, you will get criticism. People always criticize successful people, they are trying to drag the successful person down to their level, not rise and make themselves into a successful person. Another man wrote, “ First they ignore you, then they hate you, then they admire you.” Its a three step process. Now it is hard when people attack you and criticize you, we all want to be liked, but remember those are just people you once knew, move on and keep striving for success. You will always get critics, so see them this way, you must be doing something right so keep building your life, unfortunately critics are part of...

Working hard on your craft, turns nothing into something. Even God worked six days and rested on the seventh, He knew that the work builds the miracle. As Artists we need to embrace the work, do the work which builds the miracle in our lives. Work turns ideas, faith and dreams into reality. When wisdom and faith are invested in work activity, they produce the miracle of results. We live in a world that says don't work to hard, take a rest. No, no work hard and work long and don't rest to long, beware of the small enemies of your miracle. Your enemies are very smart and cunning and look to snare you, to destroy your miracle, that little voice that helps to make bad decisions. A little to much sleep? “Of course, you need your eight hours.” A little to much tv? “Of course, you need to relax a little.” A little to much resting? “Of course, you work so hard its not good for you, you rest.” A little to muc...

Your weakest skill, sets the height of your success. If you don't know your best skill, you had better find out your weakest skill, because its the weakest skill that holds you back. As Artists we so often coast along depending on our strongest skills to get us through, never realising that it is the weakest skills that hurt us the most. Now I have learned what not to do, because as an Artist I never did this but after years in Galleries I wish I had, it was a weak skill that determined the height of my success. Question, “From your last exhibition or showing, what was the worst part?” Now you cannot criticise anyone or anything, this is all about you. I don't want to hear about the terrible Gallery, terrible economy or the terrible public who just didn't appreciate your work. No, no blame on anything, just talking about you. What could you have done better? As a gallery person I now sit on the other ...

One of the great lessons of life that I have learned the hard way is not to rely on other people to much. As much as you possibly can, try to rely only on yourself, because when you learn to rely only on yourself you can never complain and never have to explain. Self discipline says, “If it is it be, then its up to me.” And how true this is for the practising Artist, no painting gets painted unless you paint it. No work gets done unless you do it. The most productive Artists I know are the ones who just do it. Every day they go to the studio and paint, whether they feel like painting or not, they just paint. Unfortunately many go to the studio to paint and then find many reasons not to paint and another day goes by with no production, yes the studio is clean now, but no new paintings. They lack self discipline, it is easier to let go, than to get up and do it. Many wait for inspiration and it seldom comes. They know they should paint. They know they could paint...

Painting is not the problem….. We have good paintings to show. Customers are not the problem….. there are plenty out there. Creativity is not the problem……..we have lots of great ideas. So what is the problem? Obscurity is the problem? Obscurity is the biggest problem Artists have, not enough people know us and out Art work. We need to apply out creative minds to come up with new ways to get noticed and get peoples attention. What can we do? Besides all the things we always talk about, have a strong Facebook, Twitter and Instagram presence. Be in as many group shows as possible, show in markets and anywhere you get an opportunity. Have a good email newsletter that you send out once a week. What else can you do? I think videos are something every Artist should get into. Video your self painting, talking about you work and the process, doing video tours of you studio and work place and put them up on your Facebook page and start a YouTube account, not to make money off ...

I read this article in the last couple of days that was very strongly saying that Artists are not writers or poets and that their art tells the story and they do not need to. Also they said that most Artists cannot tell their story of their Art because Artists are not wired that way. Now at first I wanted to write back a terse response but I thought I will wait and think about what they were saying. Yes, I agree that Artists who do not wish to story tell their Art, should not not story tell their Art. There I said it, some will say contradicting myself. Personally, I think that it is a lame excuse for being lazy. You see in every area of our lives we story tell. Have you ever sat down with a group of Artists and listened to the tall stories that they all tell? Yet when it comes to their Art they are incapable of saying anything. I find it all a little perplexing? To those Artists who do not want to story tell, I say don't! But please do not even put a title on the p...