Mark E Shellshear.

Reasons why paintings are not finished. To tired. To restless. No inspiration, certainly no perspiration. Needed to get away with friends, down time. Needed to recharge the batteries. Had to chill out in front of tv. No where to paint. Studio is to small. Excuses, excuses, excuses. You can fail one excuse at a time. Its not hard to do, just find an excuse not to do it. Or you can turn all these excuses around and paint. No excuses. If you say you will do it, then do it. If you say you will be somewhere at a certain time, then be there at that time, not earlier or later, be on time. If you say you will meet a deadline, then do it. Excuses say more about you the Artist, than the missed opportunity. Because every excuse to not paint is a missed opportunity.

The new marketing on the internet is the Artist connecting to people, then those people talking and sharing what they have heard about the Artist with others, through this connection we are building relationships and turning them into friendships. The same business principles still apply on the internet, supply and demand, but the selling process is totally changing. We are not selling to everyone but to those who want to become part of our group, those who want to know us and connect with us. Quality, value and honesty are the new social truth, if these values are found in your work and you persist for a period of time, people will trust you and talk about you and buy your Art from you, but it will take time and patience. People need to know that you love your work, if you want them to love it as well and it is through that trust and relationship that the sale of our specialty items, paintings comes from. Not everybody will like your paintings or buy them, so concentrate your ...

The game has changed for us all, Artists today are facing a new Art Business model. In the years past the Art Business was very much controlled by the Gatekeepers, the major galleries, Auction houses and collectors and dealers. These people made Artists famous and it was a very elite crowd, they did not allow many to enter into the club. Since the early 2000's this has changed completely and the old model is broken, yes these groups are still out there but their influence has shrunk because of the internet and it has allowed the Artist like never before to take control of their careers and build them as they want to, ignoring the old model. This has been hard for many Artists to come to grips with as the old way was how it was always been done, now we have a time in history were there is no gatekeeper and you can take complete responsibility for your Art Business. In the old model we had to go to the newspapers and magazines to get our Art published, we had to try and ge...

A message to my older Artists friends and especially one who is struggling in this “new normal” we have all woken up in and to any other Artists friends who are struggling a little in the Art life. I agree that the Art s ales model that we had years ago is now broken and the old industry of the 1990's and the early 2000's is on life support to stay alive. The Art Business as we knew it, is broken for us. Getting o ld has not been kind to any of us and I discovered a couple of years before I turned 60 that I was unfashionable and unwanted. I had two choices, die of boredom and bitterness or reinvent myself. I am now well into my 60's and I have changed my life completely, studied so hard about the "new normal" and made myself learn all I could about the internet and selling, how to blog and do videos and then just did it . I decided I had so much experience that I could share and care for others going through what I have been through and so ...

How do others see us? How do you see yourself? What is your self image like? Do you continually work on being the best person and the best Artist you can be? Why do that when ok will do? Because ok is mediocre, is average, is boring, the usual, ordinary, every day the same, it is just ok. If you really want to contribute to your family, friends, town, city, country through your Art, then ok will not do that. For most Artists ok is, ok. But if you want to change your world then ok, is not good enough. To change your world you will need to become extraordinary. Extraordinary, is going beyond what is the usual, the regular, or customary, to be exceptional to a very marked degree . Now the interesting thing about being extraordinary is that you may not start out in front of the crowd but each day by your diligent work practice and positive attitude you will begin to step further and further out in front of the crowd . To be extraordinary, is a daily im...

It is much better to live on the Art fringes than to be in the crowd running with everyone else. If you are in the crowd there will be pressure on you to conform to the group and its vision. We do this, because this is what people like us do. The unspoken pressure to conform is always present within a group of Artists. People like us, like people like us. If you want to be different, be innovative, push the artistic boundaries and live on the edge, then running with the crowd is not for you. Because you will find that the group will push back intentionally or unintentionally, its just the conforming nature of what a group does, to be the same and stay the same. Living in the Art fringes, you will need a compass not a map, because you must find your own way, there are no trails to follow, no directions given, you must find your own new original way, your way.                               ...

How Artists think about themselves is so very important, yet so often we just allow any thoughts to flow through our head, unchallenged and unhindered. As Artists often the difference between success and failure is the way we think about a situation and what we tell ourselves with our inner voice. One person says, “ I knew this would happen at this show, I know I will not sell.” Another person facing the exact same situation says, “ What a great opportunity, I will sell here.” Same situation, but seen through different eyes and different thinking. How you think is everything. We are all the center of our own universe, so how we talk to ourselves can define the reality that we live in. We can be negative and always finding fault with everything and everyone? Or we can be positive and always looking for the positive in everything and everyone? Again the same situation, different people, different thinking. How we perceive things internally becomes our truth, even if it...

Give yourself permission, you do not need to get it from someone else. Do not look for approval or permission from others, give it to yourself and continue to build on your Art career. If you are waiting around for that big break, you may be waiting a long time, or you can decide to be the big break yourself and just make it happen. Be your own big break? What small thing could you start doing today in your Art practice that could be the beginning of your big break in your Art practice in the future? If you are waiting for that collector to just find you, what if they don't find you? Learn about public speaking so you will have the skills to talk to strangers, its not hard you just have to do it, then you can talk to strangers, connect with people and find your own collectors instead of waiting for them to find you.

If you as an Artist are not constantly facing self doubt, fear of failure and fear of criticism, walking against the establishment and worried whether your new work will sell or not because it is new, innovative and has never been done before, then I think you are not in the creative center of your world. It is what I call living in the scary, that place where fear becomes your compass, because if your inner voice is not screaming at you saying, “Don't do this, people will laugh at you and criticize you and you will not sell and you will end up with no money living on the street and you will lose your family and you will end up living in a cardboard box and die.” Then you are not living in the scary. Anything that is new and difficult and birthed out of your creative you, will bring on the scary and it will do all it can to stop you. It wants you to live in that safe place where there is no scary and you try nothing new, where you can be mediocre and average and c...

Don't be caught waiting for your success, what if it never turns up? If you are waiting to be discovered. What if you wait and you are never discovered? If you are waiting for a successful member of your Art group to open doors for you? What if you are waiting for that door to open and it never opens? Don't wait any longer. You will have to be the one to make it happen, yes you, scary I know. No one will give you initiative, You have to take initiative. No one will give you permission, So you give yourself permission. You will have to do it, don't wait for someone else to tell you to do it, just do it. Get on social media a push yourself, it's free. Tell your story make a video, no one can stop you, it's the internet, you just have to do it. Do not wait around for the Art business to change, be the change you want to see in the Art business.

Marie asks, “But you said, we should be new, different, extraordinary, unloved by the art public in general because it is new, different and extraordinary and has not been done before? What do you mean by that, I don't really don't understand, so what am I as an Artist to do?” Yes, I want you to be all those things and you can be that, if you really want to be and that is the big question, releasing the genius within. We have had Picasso. We have had Pollock. We have had Gauguin. We have had all the greats, now we have you. Remember they also started from the beginning just like you have. So how do you become new, different and extraordinary? Stop being the mediocre you. Stop being the, it's good enough you. Stop being, I hope everyone likes this, you? Stop being the ordinary you and start to be the best you that you can be. Start to take risks with your painting, be careless, stop worrying what others will think. Start to do things that may...

I thought I would publish it and then write some thoughts at the bottom. J is a Gallery owner, B is an Artist. J .  What's good art versus bad art ? Mark.    M ediocrity -v- cutting edge, in my opinion. J.   Mark  your definition of cutting edge ? Mark.  New, different, extraordinary, unloved by the art public in general because it is new, different and extraordinary and has not been done before, in my opinion. J. And your definition of bad art ? Mark. The opposite to what I think is good art. B.  Mark , love your definitions! I guess an artist who makes different and extraordinary art must learn to sell it! I am a big fan of one local contemporary artist- although I'm not really interested in doing her kind of art . I think we have to forge our own- viva la difference! Mark.. Agree Barbara, we must all walk our own unique road. tc. Friends, Art is so subjective and we all like ...

First you have to get known through social media and word of mouth. Your work has to get known through group shows and exhibitions and your story has to be told. People have to buy into the total package, don't make it up, truth sells better. They have to like you, like your work and like your story. So blog, get your story out there, tell people how you work, show them your studio and please, please, don't be like so many artists who put up a photo and the caption reads “my studio,” tell a story, be a story teller, people want to know who you are, what you do, how you work, your likes, your dreams, let people buy into your story. It really is about you. When you put pictures of your work up on the nett, write a story about, the “ WHY” of the painting? Be in art fairs, join as many group shows as you can get into and be out of character for an artist, be friendly with all the strangers who come to see your work, talk to everybody, greet every body, somet...

I often get asked, “What should I do?” by Artists and my standard answer is “Whatever it takes.” I have talked to lots of successful Artists and there a few common things about their success. Who knows what drives one person and not another. We are all different and we all have different reasons for what we do or don't do, I get that, and I also understand that some are just not prepared to pay the price of being successful as it involves more than just hard work, it really does involve so much and it is time consuming and hard to do, but if it was easy everyone would be successful. So a few characteristics that all successful Artists have that I have met. They all work hard at their craft and work on improving their craft. By working hard I mean, doing what has to be done and completing it, they have purpose in how they work. Not just doing what is necessary to do to get through the day. They are confident in their ability to achieve what they want to achieve an...

Artists need to be able to handle uncertainty. One of the most difficult things in life to master is the fear that comes with uncertainty. What is going to happen to me? What if it fails and it all goes wrong? Uncertainty produces procrastination, being unable to make a decision. Being tentative is not being in control. “ He is so uncertain, that he cannot make a decision and is asking every bodies advice, but really he is just scared to go forward, uncertainty is robbing him of his future.” To handle uncertainty you must take action. You must do what needs to be done despite the uncertainty. The negative voice in your head always stops us and rationally talks ourselves out of action. Dealing with uncertainty is hard if your voice in your head is saying play it safe don't do this, then that is what you have to do, it is probably the right thing to do. Kick the ball, take action, just do it. Take risks and learn to manage them. Do not play safe, nothin...

The challenge for the Artist is to always be more. Be more creative. Be more adventurous. Be more daring. Be more giving. The more you give of yourself the more you become, so believe in your own creativity and yourself and do not loose sight of why you are doing what you are doing and what you are becoming. Yes there will be disappointments, that is part of life, but be more than the disappointments, build resilience into yourself and make every day different and challenging. Push the artistic envelope always, stretch yourself and paint because you can become more. Put on a smile, be positive and stay true to yourself and challenge yourself to be more. The more you work on yourself, the more you become.