Mark E Shellshear.

We must always remember how important our customers are, without them we have no sales and no Art business. So we must make sure that we give them certain things, like good value in the Art we sell them and I don’t mean the price of the painting. They must see that we present them with a complete package when we sell them a painting. Not just a great original Art work but also a professional finished Art work, where the back of the Art work is finished as well as the front of the Art work and has a card on the back with all our details about the painting and the Artist and contact details and ready to hang. Artists who love what they do and love the work they produce will want it to look the best it can possibly look for the customer, the back of the painting should look like you thought about it as much as the front. Professionalism is not just the painting on the front but the complete product, make you works valuable to your customer by allowing them to see that yo...

Do not worry about the thief who can rob you of your money, worry about the thief in your mind who will rob you of your promise, your opportunities and your future Art success. Beware when the thief, fear comes it will try and stop you for doing exciting, challenging and risky things because it wants quiet, it wants average and it wants you to be invisible. Without doing exciting, challenging and risky things you will not accomplish the Art success you desire. The thief, fear cannot be bribed, reasoned with, stopped or silenced, but it can be used to tell you what to do. When the thief, fear in your mind comes it is scary and it will do all it can to stop you from succeeding it will say things like, “ Don’t do this you will be ridiculed” “ Don’t do this you will be criticised and rejected, just be quiet, stay in the background, don’t say anything.” When this is happening you will have to say, “ So you have arrived, this must be the right thing to do, now I will do it.” ...

Learn the simplest form of economics. You get paid for bringing value to the Art market place. We bring value to the market by the Art we produce for sale. We become valuable to the Art market as we become better people and we can contribute positive actions and ideas into the market. Ideas that matter, that contribute to helping others also attain their dreams and goals. Giving of our time and knowledge to helping others A valuable person to the Art market, not only sells their work but they are so liked by their peers that if they left they would be missed. Be a valuable Artist work hard on your Art and your better self and make a positive difference in the Art market you live in. You get paid for the value you bring.

[Extract from my book, “ Thoughts from an abstract life”] One of the most successful selling Artists that I knew, who knew how to get peoples attention, will never show in the Met or in a National Gallery or any big city gallery but his paintings are in lots of homes and loved by many. The reason I say that he was successful is that he made a consistent living from his art and he got peoples attention. He painted portraits and peoples houses and pet portraits, he knew how to gets peoples attention and if you use the principles he employed, I know that they will work for you. He was a street Artist and he would set up his easel every Sunday outside a busy store and show his Art and paint. His prices were very reasonable and he sold each week and also got enough commissions that he earned a reasonable living doing the thing he loved the most, painting. Now the principles of what he did you can apply to your social media presence, the local weekly market, the monthly Art ...

I have come across many Artists who have great potential and sadly potential can be a great burden to some, they say “ Everybody believes in me but me.” Or potential can be a great challenge, to become all that you can possibly be. Look at the potential of a baby Mango tree as it breaks through the ground. How tall will it grow? How much fruit will it produce in it’s lifetime? How deep will it’s roots go down? How many people and birds will be feed by this tree? How many birds will find refuge and safety in this tree? What great potential the Little Mango tree has, now it just needs to grow and just be a Mango tree and overcome all the obstacles it will face. Look at our own lives and see the great challenge of potential that we face. To be an Artist that makes a difference and matters. To be an Artist and accomplish all that you possibly can. We start with the challenge of potential now it will take self belief and hard work. You will have to forget a...

If you don’t run away when times are hard and you hang in there you succeed, success is not giving up. For the Artist there can be lean times but it is in those times you must work and persevere and plant your seeds. Planting by getting your work out there, showing it where you can and putting it out on social media and planting the seeds to your future good success. Let the miracle of life work once you have planted the seed and keep on planting. The miracle of life will come even when it seems that nothing is happening, for the miracle happens in the ground when it seems as if it is dead and nothing is growing, but it is here that the miracle of life takes place for you. You do not see the miracle until you see the first signs of life as the plant breaks through the ground. Wait for it, because it takes patience, sow your seeds and keep on sowing, the miracle of life is taking place even if you cannot see it yet. Patience, success is not giving up. ...

The key to learning new things is, self belief, discipline, determination and a deep desire to be better tomorrow than you are to day. If you want your life to change then you are going to have to work on making changes, its takes discipline. Discipline starts with a decision to do something and then putting action into that decision. It only has to start small, like deciding to get up half an hour earlier and go for a walk for your good health. Or deciding to continuing learning and read a book than can help you learn to be a better Artist, gain new skills like learning about selling or accounting, skills that will help you in your Art business and it just takes reading as little as twenty minutes every morning. This is how change starts, small positive steps and it effects every area of your life. Build new disciplines into your life and they will become habits and positive habits build strong lives and it just starts with a decision to change. If you want the n...

It has always been my desire to do more for Artists than just sell their paintings in a Gallery, as important as that is. My vision when I started writing my daily blog years ago was to freely give out information and to help Artists so that they would not make the same mistakes that I did as a practising Artist. I then decided to do a daily video as well and teach more about what I believe and think Artists need to do and now I want to go a step further for those Artists who are interested. Every Artist is different and has different needs so what I am doing is working with each Artist individually face to face and helping you with your Art business. There are no group sessions and we talk only about your Art practice, this is designed to be of value to each individual Artist. No two Artists are alike and we all need guidance at different times and so the Shellshear Project is just that, it is to help, guide and instruct, it is to make you think, to get you to look a...

Have a clear vision of what you want to accomplish in the Art world. See it clearly, know exactly what you want. Close your eyes and visualise it and feel the emotions of achieving your dreams and goals, how does it feel? What will it take to accomplish it? What do I have to lose from my life and what do I have add to my life to make this happen? To lose things, like the negative habits and attitudes means I have to change. To gain new positive attitudes and habits means I have to change. Nothing changes without you changing. Achieving your dreams and goals will be worth the discipline of change. Change takes time.

Picasso was probably the most famous celebrity Artist ever, everyone knew Picasso’s face, even if you hated his work and the majority of the population did, but they all knew him and enough people loved him and bought his work to make him a millionaire. Everyone does not have to love you and buy your work, but everyone needs to recognise who you are and your Art. Your popularity, who you are is built upon your Art and your Art better be good and original to support your Artistic celebrity. Many will say that it is all about my Art and the purity and honesty of my Art and not about me personally, of course the Art is very important but what’s the use of having beautiful, pure, honest, original work if no one sees it or even knows that you exist, it would be as if it was never made. If you want your Art to be shown and you want it sold, then the Art buying public will need to know you and recognise you. It really is a two edged sword, your Art must be original, good and saleab...

. You can look to the Art Market to validate your success, but often the market likes what is popular and trendy and ignores what is cutting edge, new and different? Success and satisfaction comes from doing the work itself. Do not compare yourself to others, that is a sad road to follow because you will never see that you are ever good enough.  There is no one to compare you to as you are a one of a kind so let self belief drive you on, create original organic work, be different, be you. Accept praise and ignore criticism and keep away from negative people, they are like the measles and you will get infected. Build positive relationships with other Artists and talk to strangers about your work at every opportunity you get and build relationships with them and turn them into friends and life long collectors. You are the key to your Artistic success, believe in yourself and believe in your Art and never be less than your best.

Failure s tarts..... when you begin to do a little less each day and repeat little small mistakes over and over again. Little mistakes like always making excuses and criticizing and blaming circumstances. It is easy to blame everything for what is happening to us but you cannot change some things but you can change yourself. You can be the Artist who always does more than you get p aid for making an investment in your future. When we do a little more than is expected we add value to oursel ves and the other person. I f we criticise the thing s we want, we push them away. If we sow to the things we want, we bring them to us. Sow towards your better tomorrow.

It is human nature to quit when it hurts or gets hard and this is what creates scarcity. This is why we hear Artists say “ My paintings speak for themselves.” That makes it easy and it’s a great excuse and I don’t have to learn to sell because selling is hard, yet it is skill that everyone can learn. The is also why so many Artists at openings, be it at group shows or one person shows, stand to the side and do not speak to the people who are looking at the paintings and use the excuse that the people will connect with the paintings. These same Artists get upset when another Artist goes and speaks to the visitors. Why don’t they talk to the customers? Because they make excuses like the people will connect with their paintings or the paintings speak for themselves, but they don’t, paintings don’t speak. The reason they do nothing is because it’s hard to walk up to strangers if you scared inside and the thief is going crazy, much easier to sit down and make excus...

“ Can you please address this practice in a blog? I've been to art shows or galleries where I love the artist work and every single piece has "price upon request" by it. Immediately I think it's so expensive I'm not even going to ask or I'm being sized up for what the artist thinks I'd be willing to pay so he/she might be giving different prices to different people. Either way I walk away and they loose a potential sale. Am I off the mark in thinking this way or is there a good reason for trying to sell art this way? Thanks for taking the time to consider this issue which I find very irksome.” I wish this practice did not exist but for some reason Galleries think it is the right thing to do and yet it just makes them elitist and snobby and will scare the average person away. It a practice that just not make sense and if you ask why they do it the answer will be, because everyone else does it! There is nothing more frustrating than going t...

“ I know you've addressed some of this issue in your blogs, the artist making little effort to reach out to potential clients but I have to relate this story that I found so disheartening. Recently I attended a one person show for a young female artist. The artist had a young man at her side all night, whether husband or boyfriend, I don't know. What I did witness was that every person who came up to her had the same experience. HE did all the talking like he was the artist and she just stood there and smiled and said nothing! This went on for the hour I walked around to admire her work which was really fresh and innovative. I loved one piece so much I would have bought it but I could not get her attention as she made no effort to approach the public and I felt if I went up to the "couple" and he started to try and sell me I would have had said something rude like "Who's the artist here? You or her?" So better to walk away and she lost a ...

“Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.”….. Stephen King. To much to quick sounds so good and I have seen so many men and women get big success overnight in the Art world. They win a big competition and become the darlings of the Art world for a moment and then a few years later they are not painting and forgotten. Don’t pray for overnight success, pray for small incremental successes that you can grow with and work hard at your craft, that way your life will be successful. Big success to quickly is a fickle mistress and she can leave as quickly as she comes if you are not prepared as a person for it and it usually does. Work on your character and your attitudes and grow as a person, the two biggest enemies of most Artists are excessive fear and self doubt. Work very hard on you to be the best Artist that you can be, then when success comes it stays and you continue to g...

The law of life is very simple, we reap what we sow. We reap more than we sow and we reap later than we sow. We are all where we are today because of decisions that we have made in our pasts, we sowed and now we reap. Unless you have been in abusive situations where you had no control over your life, then today is the outcome of all our yesterdays. It is no good criticizing the government, the economy, the Art world, the Art galleries because things have not worked out like we wanted, critizing and complaining will make no difference at all to our lives other than make us bitter and angry. The key to changing your circumstances is recognizing the fact that we are where we are because of the decisions we have made in our past. Now if we want our futures to change then we are going to have to change and sow into our future life. We will have to sow positive words, attitudes and actions into our lives. If we have money issues then we will have to sow frugality an...

I t does not matter how many galleries you visit or how many Art books you read or how many Art degrees you have, if you do not put paint onto the canvas it is all just a fantasy. If you do not know how to run an Art business it is a very difficult road to walk. If you do not know how to sell your paintings, you do not have an Art business. Visiting galleries and being an Artist is fun and it is a wonderful story to tell yourself but if you do not paint a painting it is all an illusion. The thief will tell you any story you want to hear to stop you from doing what you have to do? Action is the only way to beat the thief. Once you know and recognize that it is fear stopping you and you act to defeat it, fear does not work in that area any more. Paint every day and be committed to continuous improvement, improving a little bit more every day and producing new original Art work. Be proactive and panic the thief.

No matter what you think of your painting good or bad, show it, it is your original work, don't let that self defeating inner voice, the thief rob you of your own creativity and frighten you into not showing your Art, fear holds so many people back. Your original work is always your best work because it is you, it talks of you and who you are as an Artist and a person. One of the saddest statements an Artist made to me was they didn’t want to show their work because they were afraid of what people would say about it. Their work was very nice and people would like it but their fear prevented them from showing their Art all because of some careless critical words someone said to them years ago, now the fear ruled them. If you do not think your work is good enough, ignore this self defeating inner talk and show your Art, you may be pleasantly surprised.

What a wonderful way to approach your Art career and life in general. We all being watched by someone all the time, so we need to always be doing the best we can do and being the best we can be. Out there young Artists and new Artists are watching what older Artists are doing and trying to emulate them, to be like them so be an inspiration to those around you. Remove the hindrances to being an inspiring Artist. Beware of complaining, be someone who encourages and sees the best in each situation. Complainers are always looking to find fault like it is buried treasure. Beware of being critical, be the Artist who finds something good to say always and be a helper not a critic. There are enough critics, we need people who can inspire us. Beware of being lazy, it will destroy any career. Beware of jealousy, it knows no limits and is the catalyst behind the other hindrances. You are a unique and original person, put that into your Art, your uniqueness and your origi...

Industries do not die by surprise. Failure does not just happen, it is something that happens over a period of time it starts with us when we just do a little less work every day and repeat little small mistakes over and over again. The things that will bring about failure quickly are sloth and unreliability. When you don't feel like painting and you tell yourself that you deserve some time off? Stop and think. You will not get this day ever again in all your life so don't waste it, paint e ven if you paint a bad painting it is better than painting no painting at all and we do need to get all the bad paintings painted as well as the good ones. Make this day count for your future, put in a little more effort than you need to and when you turn up to work, work. Do this for you, you are the most important person in your life, you will never have the opportunity to live this day again, make every day a productive Art day for you. To build a strong su...