Mark E Shellshear.

The reality is that it does not matter how marvellous your painting are, how many hours it took to paint them, whether it is oil or acrylic, or how much your work is worth, sadly if you are unknown then you will need to convince strangers that your work is good enough to buy from an unknown Artist. Think about this, because I hear it all the time from Artists who have been painting one or two years and say how unfair it is that they do not sell and is it worth going on? Once you can accept that reason you are not selling has nothing to do with your paintings you can then concentrate on what you have to do and that is to go from unknown to known. That is the biggest hurdle you face because now you will have to deal with the fear as well. If it was just about the quality of the painting then all Artists would be famous but it is not, first of all you have to get known by the people who will buy your Art, strangers. You need put yourself and your Art in front of them. You w...

To date I do not put prices on the Gallery Facebook posts. The Gallery staff have once or twice but they have not had any response. We often get inquiries about paintings and their prices. My feeling is that if the person who is looking at your painting and likes it and they go to the trouble of asking you the price, then you should pm them back the price and also ask them a question and try to get a conversation going. Example PM, “ Thank you for inquiring about my painting “ Sunset over Small Bay ” it is priced at $100. I did this painting on site over three days, catching the light and colours at that specific moment each day was both frustrating and wonderfully exciting. I feel I have caught the sunset at it’s peak time of colour and light, I am delighted with the result, it is impressive don’t you think?” Getting them to answer a question will start the process of building something between you and the potential buyer, by doing this you are creating an opport...

If we put prices on our Art then we need sales and this will be the reason we are able to go forward. If you cannot sell what you make then you cannot survive, so this is a question I always wonder about. Artists spend so much money on Art supplies, canvas, frames and all the other things they need to do what they love, then there is all the time involved to produce the work and it all needs to be sold. Yet after out laying all this money and time, then they want a Gallery or dealer to sell the work for them? Today there is not enough Galleries for all the Artists and as I keep saying the business is changing and the gatekeepers are disappearing because the internet is here to disrupt everything. Selling is a skill that you have to learn, you can tell me that you are an Artist and you do not do that, that’s ok, but how will you sell your work? Are you in a good Gallery? Do you have a very proactive dealer? If not then you will have to sell your paintings and that’s...

Yesterday I talked about becoming a successful Artist and today I thought I would talk about the two difficult things that are hard to do for some Artists. Know where your money goes. Learn about basic accounting, this is something many Artists don’t refuse to do but more question, “Why should I do that when I want to create Art and paint?” The way to know if you need to learn some basic accounting is if you ever say, “I just do not know where all the money goes?” or something similar. If you say that then get a book on simple accounting or do one of the many free accounting tutorials on You Tube. It is so important that you do know where your money goes and by keeping records and good accounts will help you do that. Why?…. so you know where your money goes, it’s your money. You need to learn to keep some of your money. I talk a lot to Artists about learning to budget and save their money. Learning to budget is not difficult and learning simple accounting wil...

I was asked by an Artist if I could tell them how to be successful and what it would take, so I condensed it down to this, I said, “Honestly it is easy to tell you how to do it but hard for you to do.” Paint, draw, create and innovate constantly.. you will need to eat, breath and live your Art. Unless you are constantly creating and pushing yourself to come up with new original ideas and work, you will slip into bad habits that are easy to do and repeat and we love easy and repeating, challenging and being uncomfortable is not for all, only for the few. Be inspired by others but do not repeat them or copy them. You are an Artist not a factory worker. Patience…. this will take time, years. Learn about basic accounting…. so you know where the money goes. Budget and save…... So you get to keep some of the money. Change….. You will need you work hard on your own self improvement. Nothing will change unless you change first. Work hard. Always work when you are w...

Sales is the reason that your Art business can exist. If you cannot sell what you make and you cannot pay yourself, then your Art business will not survive. Many Artists hope that the sales process will go away and that they will never have to sell to anyone and that they will find a Gallery or dealer who will work the magic for them but the reality is that you are your best sales person because you know your product best. Invest some time and money into learning to sell and market yourself online and it will pay big dividends. As the Art Galleries get fewer and fewer Artists have to be able to sell their own work. The wonderful thing about selling online or directly to the collector is that there is no middle man and no commissions and this is a wonderful opportunity for the Artist to build a stable business. Now is the time to promote yourself through video, blogs and showing on Artist pages in Facebook and other platforms. When you show a painting always tell a sh...

You cannot win all the time, I wish you could, I wish it was that easy. It’s the failures that teach us more than the successes. Reflect on loss and understand what has happened. Learn, make the necessary changes and go forward. Failure is not easy or easy to deal with but life goes on and we must go forward. One of the keys to learning is to question what has happened, “ What could I have done better?” Learn from past mistakes and use them to instruct yourself about what not to do and changes you have to make to your Art practice and yourself. Do not use failure to criticise and pull yourself down, just see it for what it is and go forward. The past is done, so leave it there in the past and take all the wisdom out of the past and use it to your advantage. The past is your school master not your jailer, learn from it do not be imprisoned by it. Do not repeat past mistakes hoping it will turn out different next time it will not. Mistakes require...

Yes sales are important and we all have to earn a living so we must sell our Art. Yet understand you are bringing more than just a sale to the table, you are adding value to another persons life through your Art. Even if they don't buy your painting but they look at it and find joy, hope and inspiration in your Art you have touched someone’s life and added something special to them and that is an extraordinary gift. Artists are called to create and through their creations they impact on the lives of others, so never underestimate the power of your paintings on others to inspire. You may never know everyone who is moved by your Art but you will hear from enough to know that you are making a difference and your creative contribution is important no matter how alone you may feel sometimes. Even if through your Art you only touch one special life and bring positive change into that life, how magical is that. Imagine Artist you are called to make a difference in this w...

If you want to write a musical but you are waiting until you can afford to hire an orchestra, then you will never do it. Same as the author who is going to write the great American novel, it will never happen. The Artist who is going to change the Art world by painting the greatest masterpiece of the 21 st century, most likely will never paint a painting. When you have dreams that are just so big and so amazing you will get lots of encouragement and good wishes, but painting the greatest masterpiece of the 21 st century will take so much more than good wishes. You see if the dream is so outrageous of course you can never do it and you can hide in the dream, it will always be, “ I am gonna do it, just need to get funding first.” or some other excuses but it never gets done. The most outrageous goals are wonderful, if you can figure out the small steps that you will have to take to achieve them. Maybe you will have to start at a point that you do not like, little ...

It is one thing to know something, it is another thing to apply it. Getting knowledge will get you wisdom. Understanding, is the ability to apply that knowledge. Most people fail because they know what they should do but do not do it. Excuses allow them to procrastinate and put off what they know they should do. They know what to do. They know how to do it. But they fail to do it usually because the story they have told themselves is that it is to hard. The reason most people fail is because, they just give up.

When Picasso painted “ Guernica” it was the first time he did it. When Pollock painted “ Blue poles” it was the firs time he painted it. Sometimes Artists lose sight of the fact that great Artists who went before them were just people like them and if Pollock and Picasso could achieve greatness so can you. Picasso had his failings as a man, but all men have clay feet, yet his Art was a tribute to his genius. Without his failings maybe we not have the gift of his Art. Pollock was a man of major contradictions, who had a drinking problem which unfortunately led to his death and the death of a young woman, a very tragic outcome. Yet his complexities made him the Artist he was and out of this complex troubled man came “ Blue Poles” one of the major works of the 20 th century. And so with you and your Art all the complexities that make up you is also what produces your Art. No one can make your Art quite like you. Your Art is a constant reflection of you at a certain ...

No one knows how to do what you want to do because you have not done it yet. No one knew how to paint a masterpiece before they did it the first time. Picasso did not know how to paint “ Guernica” before he did it. Nobody knew what “ Guernica” would look like. Nobody knew what it should look like, before Picasso had painted it. We start with an idea… “Fly to the moon.” How do we do that? Nobody knew how to do that, it had never been done before. No instruction manual to follow. Nobody had been to the moon before so they had to make it up as they went along. There was no map, no instructions, just an idea that they had to turn into a reality and imagine they did it. So with Art, before Jackson Pollock did “ Blue Poles” it had never been done before. Before Monet painted the water lilies series, he had never done it before. Art is a great adventure into the unknown doing things for the first time. Art is about courage and stepping into the unknown an...

New, original and cutting edge Art is scary and challenging and if you start to do it you will send the “thief” into meltdown trying to stop you because it’s not safe. We are not looking for safe we are looking for new and new is difficult and it might not work and we could fail but it is worth the risk because, what if it does work? Failure is not an issue we can always start again, failure is the price we pay to become the best we can become, it is just part of the process. Real failure is what stops you from ever starting, fear, never even considering doing something daring, but settling for being comfortable, average and invisible. Use the “thief” by doing the opposite to what it says, when it turns up and says, “Don’t do that,” you say, “ Oh you turned up I must be doing the right thing,” and venture out into new uncharted water and make your Art.

A copy is a copy and always will be a copy, no matter how you try to explain that it is not a copy, it is a copy. I was at a recent Art fair and low and behold I saw two paintings by Amedeo Modigliani and I thought he was dead, but he is alive and being channelled by a factory painter who can only copy. W e should all want t he best s tandards in our industry, so if you want to use another Artists image, get written permission. Acknowledge it is theirs on your painting. “ after Picasso”. Don't just use it because you can, that's not right, it’s stealing and really it does not take talent to copy it is just factory work at best, paint by numbers. The best advice I can give you about copying is don't copy. Be original and produce your own original art work, do not be a copy, be the real thing. Be an Artist that produces original art work from within your own creative, inner self. Create beautiful original paintings, that's got to better than b...

Everyone now has the opportunity to do something remarkable, the Internet has made it so that every Artist can now have their own Gallery, a web site and Facebook page and also be part of many Artists groups on line where you can show your work and interact with others. The problem you face is what will it take for you to stand out from the crowd and get the attention of buyers and collectors who look through these groups? There are so many gifted and talented Artists that to stand out you from the crowd you will have to be different. Look at what others are doing and do something different. Be very calculated and deliberate in what you do, study what others are doing and work out what will make you stand out from the crowd. I think an easy thing to do would be to write a short story about your Art piece to create interest and explain your work. Many Artists do not do that because they believe that their paintings speak for themselves but I know that the majority of...

I t takes time to build an Art career. One of the keys to a successful Art career is good management of your time, we only have so much time we can work so make it efficient and deliberate. U se your time efficiently, especially if you want to be successful in a shorter time than most . Do seminars, read books that can help you learn what others have done before you and learn from their experience, their successes and initiate that into your life. All you can learn from others, their success and experience you can compress into your life and this will cause things to happen quicker for you . Y ou can compress time, mo n ths into days, years into weeks, by study ing hard and learn ing from the experience and success of others and apply ing it diligently into your life. Always it is the in efficient use of time that delays so many from accomplishing so much .

. It will take great ideas and deliberate action to stand out from the crowd. Ideas are easy to come by, everyone has them. Excuses are easy to come by, everyone uses them. Ideas are useless, unless you are prepared to do the hard work to make the ideas a reality. It is in the work where the miracle happens, not in the ideas. Some Artists have great ideas and then talk themselves out of them and use excuses for why it could not happen. Mostly it’s fear that stops them and some procrastinate. Not all ideas will work and if they don't, no problem, ideas are in abundance so get some more. The problem is not that there is not enough good ideas because there are an abundance of them, the problem is someone has to do the work to make them a reality. Wishful thinking is nice and makes you feel good, but only good ideas and hard work will bring forth the miracle of success in your Art career.

Artists take care of yourself, this can be a cruel business, not everyone wants the best for you. Make sure you have a network around you of loving caring family and friends so when it all goes wrong, and in this industry it can go wrong very quickly and easily, you have caring people to talk to and share with, that love you. Do not listen to those who are not more successful than you. Listening to those just like you, gets your own advice back. Listen to those who are more successful, because that is what you want. Be gentle on yourself, talk about your dreams and struggles with those who care, don’t waste it on the others. Rejection is a bitter pill, try to not take it personally, I know that is a lot to ask, smile and remember, you cannot please everyone. Just smile them off, don't react and remember, “ You didn’t make it for them.” Keep smiling and be successful, it drives the critics crazy.

Every Artist today can take the opportunity to do something remarkable. Imagine today like never before in history, I can watch Artists talk about and make their Art from all over the world. What an amazing marketing tool. I can watch Kelly in Australia talk to me about her marvellous abstract paintings. I can then watch Katrina in her video from San Antonio Texas, show me her process for her beautiful fabric art pieces. I can the watch Amy live from Meriden, Connecticut teaching me about her resin paintings and how to do it. I can then read Mike Barr’s blog fro m Adelaide in South Australia and learn new ideas from an amazing tal e nted Artist. Isn’t that remarkable, that we can interact because of the internet and every Artist has the opportunity to do so. We can all make a video of our Art work. We can all write a blog and talk about our Art work and practice . We all have the opportunity to interact and build relationships with people all over th...

She understood what Art market she wanted to be in. The Art market is diverse, find your niche and build there, know what you want. She persevered for years to build her reputation. Get attention and build a reputation of trust, honesty and integrity. She protected herself against failure. She was careful with expenses, always spending less than she earned each month, deliberate saving. She did not waste her assets, managed her time well. It’s not about how many hours you work, it’s about how much work you accomplish when you work. She was pioneering in her attitude to create original, innovative artwork over a variety of price points. She under promised and over delivered. She brings value to the Art market.

She who waters will herself be watered. I really do love the thought of generosity here that if you are a giving person you shall also be given to. I really believe it is important to do more than is expected, to bring value to all you do as an Artist. Now I do not mean give away your paintings or not put reasonable prices on your work, but within your Art practice always be ready to do a little more, to add value where others would not. Yes there will be times when you will be taken advantage of but on the whole that will not happen often. I remember being in a group show years ago, it was a great opening night but few paintings were sold and for us Artists we felt sorry for ourselves that nothing of ours sold. Nearing the end of the night there was one lady we all knew looking at all the paintings but we knew she had four or five children and did not have the money to spend on Art, her and her husband were barely making ends meet. This one Artist walked up to her and ask...

If we as Artists can make the sales process a good and memorable experience for the stranger and we can then give them excellent after sales service, we will be half way towards our next sale to our new friend and future collector. Imagine the advantage we would gain if we were to do this, compared to those who could not be bothered or are not interested? Excellence is hard work, and it cannot be undervalued. Be the best Artist that you can be, excel.

I talked this morning on the video about the different types of people that we will encounter when we go to sell our Art. Often we are going to get more rejections and knock backs than we will get sales. Unfortunately most Artists remember vividly the rejections and can recount them word perfect when asked. That is because the rejection bought on an emotion and that emotion cements the experience, that is why we remember negatives so well. It’s the thief’s way of reminding us of the failure so we don’t do that again, it is saying “ See be safe don’t do that again, see what happens when you try new things?” So to counter that we really need to major on the sales and I really encourage you to do this, it will be good personal encouragement for you when times are tough. As soon as you make a sale and the customer goes, write out your thoughts and what the customer said as best you can remember in your journal, because you will forget it as soon as a rejection comes. I know y...

I read this and wondered how this would relate to Artists? I don’t believe that Artists are in a contest with other Artists, we are a community all working hopefully together for the common good. So where is the contest? The contest is within, winning all the battles that we face with the thief, our own person al negative self talk and the war in the flesh. Our contest is very private and mostly done in solitude. Learn to recognise the voice of fear, the thief and use it as a compass. If the thief says no you say go. R ecognise it when it comes and tries to stop you from going forward and doing new and challenging things, greet it and say, “ Are, you turned up I must be doing the right thing, so I will proceed.” Learn to quieten the critical voice in your head by not accepting what it says and start making positive affirmations about yourself . Work on this and get yourself thinking positive thoughts, what you think about most of the time, most of the time y...

Y ou must bring value to the market place. You must be valuable to the market place. We bring value to the market place through our original Art work, be it paintings, sculpture, construction or any other Artistic medium. Value comes when we contribute by creating original Art work, putting a price on it and allowing the market to buy and collect it, value created . We are valuable to the Art market when we contribute our ideas and creations to the greater body of people. We are valuable because we create, we take what doesn’t exist and bring it into reality, this is valuable. Many Artists underestimate how valuable their contribut ion to the Art scene is. They do not realise that they are what makes the Art scene so vibrant and exciting and losing one Artists voice makes us all a little bit poorer. All Artists are important from the superstar Artist down to the Artist who paints for pleasure and gives all their work away, all have something wonderful to give...

Successful Artists are willing to do what unsuccessful artists are not prepared to do. Working on your Art practice and yourself consistently and correctly will produce excellence. Working on yourself requires change and that will take self discipline and old bad habits will have to go. To be a success or to be a failure both involve pain, the successful Artists works hard though out their career and in the beginning must endure the pain of self discipline and the unsuccessful Artist who does not work hard and is undisciplined will endure the pain of regret later in life. Please do not, I plead with you, do not wait until you are in your late 40’s or 50’s and face a huge crisis that forces you to change. Make change a choice that you choose to do now, not one you are forced to do later. Deal with those bad habits, that are holding you back from excellence. The best day to change is today. The best day to start learning is today. The best day to make your Art...