Mark E Shellshear.

I am always saddened when I am contacted by Artists who want to give up and stop painting and get out of the Art community. Many contact me and ask for help, what will they do? They have been painting for a number of years and just cannot make it. Few sales come but not regular enough and it does become very difficult I know. What can I say? First of all do not blame yourself or the Art Business, it is what it is. Blaming yourself will not achieve anything but self pity. So first take a deep breath and exhale slowly and consider your options. You cannot change the Art Business, but you can change you and your circumstances. If you do not need to sell paintings to live, then don't sell any more, paint because you love to paint and give them all away, the best reason to paint. So many Artists just do not comprehend what happens when you start to price your work. People go from wonderful givers of their Art work to disappointed, bitter sellers of their w...

I do understand your need to price your paintings. But if you have been in this business for only a few years, then I believe the question should be, “ How do I get my paintings onto the walls of strangers at a price that we both can be happy with?” I really believe that price in the beginning of your Art career should be that you recover your costs and sell your paintings. Now I know I will get lots of comments saying I want Artists to give away their paintings, but I do not. I want Artists to build a sustainable business from their Art so that it will support them into the future. Art is like any small business starting up, it will take a few years to make any money, so the idea is to build your business so that it will make money in the future. Sell at a price in the beginning that gives good value to the buyer and yourself. Do not give them away but also do not price them like you are mature seasoned Artist. So how do I do that? Think about thi...

Artists yo u have to convince strangers to buy your Art work. It does not matter what your family and friends think of your work because they care about you and will always give you praise and that’s great but they will not buy all your paintings so you will have to convince strangers to do so. It really does matter what strangers think because they are the ones who will buy your work and strangers will make you famous. Convince them through story telling your Art, make it interesting and engrossing. Educate them about why you paint and who you are as a person, explain your vision and what you are trying accomplish, inspire them with your vision . Win them over to you through being passionate about your Art and always being friendly and approachable, never complain but always have something positive to say. Build relationships with strangers who like your Art and turn them into friends and life long collectors. Yes it’s hard work but the rewards are worth it. ...

Artists must strive for excellence in what they do if they are going to change their world, not strive for applause. There is nothing wrong with applause if we are getting it for excellence, giving the best value we can for the Art we are creating, this way the applause is the result of the value we have provided. But to paint to be popular and if that is your true motive will never be lasting. As I keep saying one of the biggest challenge each Artist must face is how to handle popularity? Does one listen to all the praise and flattery and believe it and get a big ego or does one hear it and appreciate it and know that praise is fleeting and now we must go back to the studio and keep being productive and creative. It takes a very mature head to understand that being popular is not what we are striving for but to produce wonderful, organic, original Art and recognise that the praise is just the result of the hard work, just like money. Money and popularity are the result of producing...

Artist you know what scares you the most about your Art practice and the thing you constantly put off, that is probably the key to your success. Often the thing we don't want to do, is most likely the thing we need to do, so don’t let the thief rob you of your success. If the thief turns up to stop you, just think to yourself, “ if the thief is trying to stop me and panic me, it must be the right thing to do,” so then just ahead and do it anyway. Once you know it’s the thief and you do it anyway, it loses power in that area and it becomes easier and easier for you to do next time. Every time you go against the thief you take a little more power from it. Don’t let the thief stop you, panic the thief and do it and gain mastery over it in that area of your life. Tomorrow, do it again.

Build the Art business that you want to live with, not what you think is expected of you by others. Do not allow the romantic notions of what we are told by movies and books of what the Artist life is like to influence you, if you are selling your Art then you need to work hard at that and it means turning up every day to work. It is very easy to get caught up in the race to be successful which will cause you to take short cuts that in the long term will damage you and your business. Do not trade off fast sales of questionable copied Art for a good reputation and a name for quality work? Your good name is what will support you in the future, to lose people’s trust and confidence in you will mean you will not have a long career in the Arts. Build an Art career that will last, build on the reputation of producing original organic Art that is yours and yours alone. If you want a long career in the Arts build strong always knowing exactly what you want and establishing...

Knowing is not enough, we must be able to apply it. Wishing is not enough, we must do it. How many times have I had the conversation with an Artist and they say, “ I know what I have to do, I just cannot bring myself to do it.” How many promising Art careers have been stagnated by this fear of doing, what will people think, what will people say? I had one person say they will leave it up to divine providence, if it is meant to be it will happen. I responded, God told Moses to go to the promise land, but if Moses didn’t get up and go he would never have arrived there. These are just excuses for inaction and giving into fear. Wishing and hoping will not build a successful Art career. If you know what to do, then apply yourself and do it. Once you overcome the fear in one area it does not work in that area again.

Different people hear things differently. Different people see things differently. This is important to remember when you are dealing with your clients, so you will need to choose to care. Listen carefully to what they are saying, not what you think they are saying. Don’t interrupt and give good feedback. Make sure you understand what they are really seeing in your Art work and then lead them into what you were trying to accomplish with your story of the painting. People want to know and understand the Artist and the Art work. Learn to listen more and talk less. Learn to hear what they are really saying and give good feedback. Caring for your customer means that customer service starts at the point of sale and goes on for the rest of your relationship with that customer.

Yesterday I was shocked when I saw a post and senior Artists were saying it is ok to copy and use other peoples images, what kind of role model for younger Artists is that? Now I understand why they have stalled careers and lack any kind of original thought. I am constantly amazed every time I speak or write about copying other peoples Art or reproducing copies of your own sold Art, or copying the masters and calling it a fancy name, there are so many mature Artists who want to d efend this practice as right, when it is not. People get upset when I call copying others Artists images and reproducing your own sold Art as factory work but that is what it is. I have fancy words thrown at me to justify copying, like “ iterations “ it means, “ the repetition of a process or utterance.” S o again I am bewildered at why these Artists defend a wrong practice. It is like the word abattoir which is the polite way of saying slaughterhouse, but it does not change what...

Lots, you learn what not to do next time, you learn that there is a better way to do it and you learn that you must change yourself if you want your world to change. Failure in the Art World does not come because you have no talent or you cannot paint. Most people fail in the Art world because they just give up. Once you give up it’s finished, there is no going forward so the key to surviving is to never give up, to never quit. Many people become Artists because of the encouragement of family and friends and often they say how talented you are and then you launch into selling your Art believing what they have said and expecting to sell and most times you do not sell. Artists become disheartened and often give up after some time. Understand this Art market you are in it is no different to any other market, supply and demand. If strangers perceive value in your Art and they want it then they will buy it, the issue here is that often the unknown Artist perceives m...

I will give a brief idea of how I see it, this just my opinion and I know that some would not agree with me, but that’s ok, it is just my opinion . No one likes a label put on them and especially this label e merging Artist, but what is an emerging Artist? If you go to Google you can see the definition that they give for the emerging Artist , basically it say it is someone who has caught the eye of galleries and critics and are starting to get known. Now we live in an age where galleries are disappearing and critics are for hire, so that does not seem to be good way to clarify what an emerging Artist is. When asked my answer is, an Artist who is new in the Art business and is unknown. They can be new out of Art school or someone who has decided to take up painting and enter the Art business, age is not important but length of time in the business and reputation is. The priority of the emerging Artist is to sell their work at every opportunity they can and get the ...

“ We've been friends awhile now and you’ve seen m y work a n d my hustle. M y question is would I be considered an up a n d coming artist or should I start looking at myself in a more professional light and drop some of my humorous antics?” I think you are a talented Artist and you need to see yourself as a Professional Artist, not as an up and coming Artist because the story you will tell yourself will be so different. If you see yourself as a Professional Artist you are going to approach your work very differently. You will turn up and work, no excuses. You need then to consider who are your target market is and how do you reach them, because these are the strangers who are going to make your career successful. Getting your work in front of these people will become your priority. Once you know who your target market is not only do you need to get your work in front of them but in some ways you will need to become like them so they will except you ...

You will have good days paintings and bad days paintings, so do not be concerned of what other people are thinking about any one of your paintings, concentrate on two things. What you feel and that you are painting. I truly believe that it is not about any one painting, it is about the act of painting every day. Concentrate on painting you and what you are seeing and experiencing in your world, paint you. J ust taking the ordinary you are experiencing and feeling and making a wonderful story out of it in paint . Life is not about the day when you win the prize, it's about all the painting days in between. Tell your story in paint.

The Artist is more important than the painting, because without the Artist there is no painting. The Art piece is the result of the Artist painting and it is never an end in itself as the Artist keeps painting more paintings. Over the years I have watched many young Artists win big competitions and there painting is hailed a great painting and then over the years that follow they fade away and stop painting. It would be terrible to paint your masterpiece today, because what then comes next? Better that the body of work you create over a lifetime is your masterpiece because then you are always contributing to it, each day another painting is added to your whole body of work. Be patient don’t look for instant fame because it can go away just as quickly. See that you strive to be a little better each day and that constant improvement will bring you success and each day you are contributing a little bit more to your masterpiece.

What you focus your thoughts on really does matter. If you focus on the negative and allow the thief to direct your life 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 personally hurt. What we focus on really matters. If you want to see the negative or the positive, you will. A lot of people focus on an imagined situations they listen to the thief, fear and what the thief tells them is how negative it everything is so don’t do it you will be hurt, be safe, this only takes a few seconds to do, the thief is out to stop you and then it takes you days, weeks or months to recover from it. Be careful what you focus on, don’t listen to the thief. Do not p...

If you want strangers to buy your Art works, then you are going to have to sell your paintings to them. Artists say, “I do not have a gallery or dealer, so how can I sell them?” The honest answer if you want to sell is, learn to sell. I wish someone had said this to me 40 years ago, it would have made my journey so much easier. I believed that someone would do it for me as if by magic but it never happened, I soon realised to late that I had to sell my own work because no one else would unless I was well known and I wasn’t. The key to selling your paintings is, learn to sell. Selling is building relationships with strangers so that they trust and love your painting and believe in what you stand for. Selling is being nice and friendly to people and telling them about your wonderful paintings. Selling is story telling your paintings about why you painted it, what you were trying to accomplish and what the painting means to you. Selling is being passionate and enthu...

Do people like your paintings and are they prepared to part with their hard earned money to buy one of your paintings? I read so much about Artists who have been painting for less than 5 years, some only a few months complaining about how no one wants to pay the prices that they put on their paintings. In my opinion they are concerned about all the wrong things, I read them always talking about the price they that they should get for their paintings and the pricing formulas they use, price per square inch, add labour costs and I saw someone say and factor in utility costs. Now I can understand a mature Artist at the peak of her career talking about these things but she does not have to because she has built her career and her prices have increased to the point where the small prices she got in the beginning have been returned to her many times over. Artists at the beginning of your career it is not how much you get for your paintings, the price, it’s all about stranger...