Mark E Shellshear.

It is much better to be the Artist that lives on the Art fringes than to be immersed in the crowd running with everyone else. The unspoken pressure to conform is always present within a group of Artists. If you want to be different, to innovate, push the artistic boundaries and live on the edge, then running with the crowd is not for you. If you dare to live on 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 will be inspired to be you, the best Artist that you can be. To search out your own new original paintings, your paintings.

Friends, Art is so subjective and we all like different things and different styles so what I think is wonderful Art others may not think so and what I think is not wonderful Art others may believe is g reat Art , of course it is only our opinion as to what is wonderful or not so. . I am always over joyed when people decide to paint and do it because they love to paint. P ainting is a wonderful pastime and more should do it and experience the pure joy of creating y our own personal Art work . If you never want to sell your work and give it away, I rejoice with you and encourage you to continue to paint for the pure love of painting and the happiness it brings when you give your Art away to grateful friends and family. My opinion only comes into play when Artists enter the Art market and put prices on their work, then as someone who sells Art I will pick and choose what I think is best for my Gallery. So what kind of Art do I personally like? “ New, different, ex...

Please understand what I am saying as I often get misunderstood, I want Artists to sell their paintings and earn a good living from their Art and build their own brand. I believe that selling is so important so that the can Artist develop and grow and produce new work. I do not think that one should keep reproducing the same or similar paintings over and over again, year after year, just because they sell. I believe collectors and Art lovers want to see growth in the Artist and an evolution of artistic style and maturity in the paintings and the Artist. As the Artist matures they need to build their Artistic brand also as well as selling paintings. A wonderful example of building your brand so that you could experiment and be different is the rock group “ The Beatles.” They were masters at building their brand, themselves, not a song and then being able to change their music whenever they wanted and the fans went with them, why? They were the Beatles, they were not a ...

I received this from an Artist, “I approached new galleries they said immediately which is your style? We only take Artists who paint in the same style so that customers recognize  who painted the paintings.” I understand why t he gallery takes that position because if they could just sell the same painting over and over again they w ould. They find a painting that sells and they want to keep selling it, they are in business and they sell paintings to make money . T here are many artists out there that get big prices for constantly reproducing the same painting s , that is factory art, reproducing the same painting in various versions to please a certain market. Now that is fine but it is not Art, it is factory painting, doing the same painting over and over in the same similar style because it sells. That is ok, if selling paintings as merchandise is what you are all about. Realise that t he art market does not say what is good or bad art, only history w...

Often in our Art practice we will be faced with great challenges, something that will excite us and scare us at the same time. We have a choice to make, to do the something that will make us remarkable and remembered compared to something that is easy to do and safe. Choose the hard and scary choice that will force you out of your comfort zone and stretch you. The easy road is well travelled, nearly everyone is on it and it leads to average, conformity, safe and mediocrity. The hard and scary road, is not well travelled causes us to change which brings growth, learning and purpose. Learn the magic power of purpose that pulls you into the future. An Artist with purpose understands that being scared is normal, but sees it as a challenge and uses it as a compass and not a stop sign. What you are scared of just may be that wonderful opportunity you have been waiting for, that will change your Art career and life. Do not let the shadows and that negative voice of fear i...

Artists should learn to sell and market themselves, this is a new revolution you are living through, so don’t waste it. The Internet has changed the Art world as it is changing every area of our lives, yet I still hear Artists complaining and wishing it was like the days of old. It will never again be like the old days they are gone forever and Artists we need to embrace this new brave world and use the Internet to our advantage, not see it as a play thing to put our nice pictures up on for friends and family or play games on, this is the marketing tool of today and those Artists who learn to use it will prosper. Its no good fixing the blame because you don’t understand it, learn about it, complaining about these things you cannot change does not make any sense, better to change the things you can change and learn new skills. Artists, spend a lot of money on art supplies, canvas, studio rents and time, then they show their work and nothing or little sells. The proble...

There are so many people ready to give constructive criticism and offer their opinion, but please in most instances back yourself over the opinions of others. Be slow to listen to the negative opinions of others, they do not have to live with the consequences of what they tell you to do, you do. Friends and family may have good intentions but you live with the results remember, people come and people go, but you must live with you always. Failing and rejection are temporary but giving up is permanent. You need to continue to educate yourself so can make the right decisions at the right time, personal growth is important. If you are not happy with where you are right now, then change you. You change and your whole world will change. It has been said to me recently, that it is easy so say change but hard to do? If it was easy everybody would do it. So start with small changes, read a book instead of watching tv, have positive input not negative. Do a course, so many are free on the ...

As an Artist if you are going to pioneer a new movement in Art or step out of the crowd and do new, original, organic work, then you will be putting yourself into a vulnerable place. When we do this and we put ourselves into that vulnerable place, we are going to need to embrace the experience. Not all will rejoice at you leaving the pack as you are now being different and bringing change and we know most people fear change. Yes you may be criticised but you will also be praised and gain followers. People are looking for leaders, so to be seen, you will need to step out of the pack and walk alone, be a trail blazer and then others will follow. Don’t point the way, lead and show the way. R isk being vulnerable when we present our new paintings to the public and our fellow Artists and embrace the challenge of standing out from the pack and leading. A s Artists be leaders, change Art as we know it , dare to be different and confront the establishment, before the Imp...

Action is difficult, because we will have to first face all our well rehearsed excuse why we cannot do it. These excuses are like old friends that turn up every time we are challenged to get out of our comfort zone and do something new. Failure is not the problem, because if we do nothing then we have achieved that already. The problem is fear, the fear of the fear of failure. The fear of what others will say about us. The fear that people will finally discover what a fraud we really are. Frozen in this internal fear we do nothing, and this quietens the voice of fear and we achieve little, but we are safe. Safe is not a good place to be. The comfort zone is the safe place, but it is boring and you will be doomed to mediocrity. Our self talk can be so destructive and stop us from achieving all the potential that we have. Now think about this next time you face the fear as you are about to get out of your comfort zone and do something amazing. Stephen King did not know how to wr...

What you focus your thoughts on really does matter. If you focus on the negative then all you will see is the negative. It does amaze me how two Artists can do the same group show and one comes away happy and positive and has learned a lot from the positive experience and another can come from the same show and all they saw was how terrible it was, how offensive the people were and they did not learn anything from it at all except that they were injured. What we focus on really matters. If you want to see the negative, you will. If to want to see the positive you will, it is all a matter of what you focus on. What you focus on you feel. A lot of people focus on a situation and what it means to them, we have all been there and then by some strange conclusion we come to the decision that everyone hates me, everyone dislikes me, but how does one come to that conclusion when no one has spoken to them? For most people we dismiss the thought as silly and go up and talk t...

As Artists we make certain promises to ourselves and our potential audience, even though we may not be aware of it. The promise is that we are doing our very best work that we can do at this particular time and place in our creative journey. The promise that we are putting our selves into the work and the painting is as much our ongoing story as it is a story of a painting. The strangers expectation and story about us is a little different. What is the painting all about? Why did you paint this particular painting? Can you convince me that you love it very much and that I should love it also? Convince me why I should purchase your painting? If I purchase this painting from you is that the end of a transaction or the beginning of a relationship? Stories about your Art leads to sales.

I love this thought, “ Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.” The continued education of our life, the person we are and are becoming is determined by your heart, which is the inner man, our thoughts, our emotions . A bove all the things that have to be guarded, keep guard of your heart, y our thoughts, your emotions, your character, guard them aggressively. Guard them from loud and proud people. G uard them from negative and critical people. Guard them from flattery and self serving people. K eep watch over them because they determine the person that you are and are becom ing . Expel from your own life self doubt and self criticism. Guard against fear, especially the fear of failure. Guard against the fear of what other people may say. Guard against the fear of fear itself, most of what we fear never happens. Keep positive thoughts defending your heart. Keep a positive attitude defending your character. R...

When I was painting full time what lessons did I learn from bad experiences with people? Lessons like, stay away from negative people, they will drag you down to their level. Negative people, no matter how right they sound, if it is not constructive and leads to a positive outcomes, stay away. Fault finders say more about themselves when they find fault, than the people they find fault with. Critical people say more about themselves and reveal more about their character, than the people they criticise. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. People reveal their character and their inner flaws by their words. Negative influence is not good for your Art or you and will bring you down, learn to walk away. Be wise in learning and realise that sometimes for the your own Art career and positive outlook, you just have to walk away from some people.

I was reading a short story on self-analysis and I thought it would be a challenge to us all regarding how to honestly access our Art work and our Art career in a positive fashion. Reflection is very important in evaluating our progress and I believe we should all have a realistic approach our progression. Keeping a journal is a wonderful way of putting down our thoughts and being able to look back and read about what we were doing and thinking in the  past and see our progress. Now we are not fault finding or searching for all we did wrong to beat ourselves up but looking for ways to do things better. It is so easy to be your worst critic and that is not what I want, I want us to be positive with ourselves and see the best in what we are doing in both our thoughts, words and actions. Do not criticize yourself or your Art, encourage yourself always, talk positively to yourself. Positive self talk builds a strong positive outlook and actions. Our words will follow our thoughts,...

The question is, we want to sell our paintings, how do we do that? I am not going to try and answer that question but rather ask another question. What small thing could you do differently that would get the attention of the people in your world? Not the whole world, just your world so that it is doable. See if we say the whole world or even the whole country, that is very hard to do and gives a good excuse for doing nothing, so keep it to just your world so you can do it. So often we know the answer to our success, the problem is doing it. List out all the things that you could do that you are not doing, that would get the attention of strangers? Write a blog? Do a weekly video? Join am Art group? Approach a Gallery? Teach beginner Artists? Teach children Art? Have a stall at the Art Market? Set up on the street and paint and show your paintings on a busy main road? Go to the mall and find out the cost of sitting in the mall and painting and showing...

Artists b uild relationships, be friendly and tell your story. T ell stories about your paintings, what a painting means to you, why you painted it, there is always a back story to every painting, so tell it. T reat your collectors like friends and always give a little more than is expected to your Collectors and customers. A smile adds value, it builds relationships. Be passionate about your Art, it is contagious. Treat your customers how you would like to be treated, this is key to selling . Its not about selling a painting to one person, its about selling many paintings for a life time to many people, one painting at a time. So Artists, play the long game, patience is needed . Always stay positive and smile, it will disarm your critics.

We live in a new day and the Internet and Social Media are now part of the new business life of the Artist. It will mean longer hours for the Artist, painting and marketing their work, but never before has the individual Artist had such a long reach into the public as they have today. An Artist with a lap top and a camera can reach potentially millions of people on a daily basics, something that was unheard of 20 years ago and they are now more in control o f their destiny than ever before. The Artist can now control where they show their work and where they sell it. The middle man has been cut out and now the Artist because of the internet can sell direct to the collector without the need of a Gallery or dealer. We live in a time where the unknown Artist has a better chance of selling now than ever before and that is because of the Internet and that is good for the Artist and the Art business. With this new opportunity also comes a greater responsibility for the Artist to get the...

I was asked my thoughts on selling on social media, the reality is every body is looking for the miracle way to market their Art work. A way that will get lots of sales and make it happen very fast and unless you have a lot of money to invest in advertising yourself and promotion, then the quickest way is the hard way, doing the work. If you are not using social media to its best possible outcomes then you will have to learn to do it. There are lots of tutor ials and courses free on the internet. I have found that just keeping ahead on social platforms is virtually a full time job, there is a lot of work in doing this, so think about that before you start, you will need to set aside time each day for social and stick to that time frame as you still need to paint. Once you decide to do social media, the key is consistency it can not be hit and miss, you must determine how much you will do and do it, as I said, set aside an allotted time each day to do social and do it in that time....

If you want to be a successful Artist then you will need to be successful within first. Being successful in dealing with bad habits. Being successful in dealing with bad attitudes. Being successful in dealing with bad behaviour. Being successful in dealing with bad work practice. These and many more need to be conquered within so we can see the results translated into our lives. The truth is we never grow taller than the person within and it is mostly the person within that is holding us back from being the wonderful success that we are destined to be. The unseen issues that hold us back. As we work hard on these inward issues and overcome them the more outward success we will see, both as a person and as an Artist. We can change our inward negative story and then that will change our life. Work on the bad habits and turn them into successful habits. So often it’s just a simple switch to giving instead of taking and hurting. Give encouragement, not critici...

Be grateful for all you have, its a privilege to be an Artist. Do not take what you have for granted, trust me from personal experience you can wake up one day and it is all gone. Master your Artistic skills, build new daily disciplines into your life. Always wake up early and jump out of bed rejoicing in the new day of opportunity. Rejoice in the beautiful world around you and the people who love you, you are special to them. Take time to smell the flowers and watch a beautiful butterfly dance on the roses, be so grateful for such small wonderful things. You are an Artist, always be grateful for that privilege. Always be nice, a smile is so easy, so give them away to everyone you meet, you will put sparkle into their lives. Artist dance to your own music.

Do not promise others, only promise yourself. Give yourself permission and be accountable to yourself. Keep painting until……….. it works. Keep showing your paintings until……….. they sell. Pay the price until…………. you succeed. Be patient until…………..… you succeed. Never give up until………… you succeed. Do what you can do. Do the best you can do. Be the best that you can be, failure is not an option, be relentless in pursuing the best for you. Focus on your future Artistic success and what you must do to achieve it. Do not consider failure, be resolute, never give up and do what it takes to succeed, this is your future, your life.