Mark E Shellshear.

I was talking to someone who was learning a new skill and I asked them how it was going and they said that they had stopped. I said to them, “ Did it get to hard?” And they said, “ Yes.” When it gets hard most give up. That’s why most people settle for the simplest path, which is to do just enough to remain invisible. Invisible is fine if you are hiding from danger, but is a bad strategy if you are trying to sell your Art. To sell your Art you will need to get known, well known and you will need to learn new skills. To get known you will have to learn new skills like making videos, selling, talking to strangers, story telling your Art, many new skills that will help you to reach strangers and become well known. Every new skill is hard until you learn it, then it is easy. Push through the hard and master new skills. Invisible is not an option if you want to sell your Art.

I often wonder why more Artists are not making videos of there Art work and practice? What are you afraid of? Arrest, exile to a desert island? I don’t think that will happen maybe it is just the fear inside your head stopping you and telling you lies. “ They will laugh at me.” “ They will criticize me.” “ They will make me feel ashamed.” “ They will hate me.” What if they don’t? What if we welcome you and applaud you? What if we encourage and support you? What if we love your videos? What if collectors see your videos and buy your work? No one is stopping you, the stop sign you see, you are holding it. We are waiting for your videos. Delight us.

When I first started my blog and then my video I really thought that some people would try and stop me, but to my surprise people are rarely willing to step up and stop you. You do get the odd critic or two or the genius who wants to correct you but on a whole most people support you and do not try and stop you or they just ignore you and hope you go away. I thought that when I said Galleries were broken, Art schools were broken and the Art market is broken that at least someone would challenge me, but no there was just silence. I learned that what I feared came from within not from without and once the fear was silenced or rather ignored, I was amazed there were people waiting to listen to someone crazy enough to actually try and make a difference. Always my desire has been to see Artists earn a living from their Art and to bring about change in the Art world and before people used to give me a condescending smile whenever I said this as if I was soft in the head but ...

There will never be enough reassurance, there just isn’t. Entering that Art competition, joining that group show, giving the Artist remarks on you opening night, talking to that stranger, storytelling your Art, there is not going to be enough reassurance for you, stepping out is scary. So you either do it or you wait until you are assured it will work. The problem with waiting is you will never know when to do it because there is not enough reassurance. Once you can free yourself from the need for reassurance you can now embrace change and be like Picasso, he never need reassurance, he believed he was Picasso. Self-belief is far better than reassurance.

If we are in a jet going from Manila to Sydney then we want it to be a perfect flight, no incidents, by the book. If you are a heart surgeon and you are operating on us we want it to go perfectly, by the book. If you make pacemakers that go inside people to keep them alive, then we want every one made perfectly to spec, by the book. But you are an Artist and we want you to innovate and break all the rules, we want you to throw out the book and do it your way. We want new and different, we want the original you, we don’t want a repeat of yesterday, we don’t want copies and we don’t want by the book. We want you to startle us, make us look with wonder, we want to be transported to a new reality, we want different, you are the Artist take us somewhere new. Art is not by the book, it is by your imagination. Imagine what you can create?

Many come into the Art business believing that they will be different and that they will be an overnight success and I wish them well. The problem with that is that it can go away just as fast as it comes. Success takes time to build because you want it to last, so don’t rush it or be impatient it’s going to take time, ten years at least. Success comes to those who last the distance and produce consistent original Art works. A few warnings about success. Not painting much is not a useful way of building an Art career. Waiting to paint the perfect painting, your masterpiece, is a lousy strategy, you probably will not paint many painting because they will never be good enough. Don’t wait for inspiration to come before you start painting, it probably won’t come, it needs an invitation. Start painting and it will turn up. Remaining an unknown Artist, being invisible is not the best strategy to become popular, you must get known. Believing you do not have to sel...

How do we explain how some Artists get successful and then just stop. Stop innovating, stop experimenting and stop pushing. What happened? Maybe once you get successful you have to protect what you have, but that can be dangerous because your fans want you to continue to innovate, experiment and push forward with new original work. Success is wonderful and we all want it but it also can be dangerous because now you have something to lose and therefore you will try and protect it. That is all fine but it could lead to you stopping creating new and interesting work. The key to keeping your hard earned success and enjoying it is to work like you are still struggling to make it, always pushing yourself into new and interesting projects and being enthusiastic about what you do. Don’t stop the struggle, keep building on what you have and enjoy your success at whatever level you are at. Success is an attitude not an event it’s part of your continuing journey. ...

Dealing with customers would be a lot easier if we didn’t have to deal with customers. But then we would have no sales and no business. So we have to learn to deal with the good customer and the difficult customer, the one who changes their mind, thinks your paintings are to expensive or the one who can’t find any painting that will match her curtains and on and on. Customers are part of doing business and we need them, best if we can always have good customers rather than the difficult customer, the problem is it’s hard to tell the difference until you start talking to them. We could run away and hide and use the excuse that I am an Artist and someone else should sell my Art for me, but unless you are very popular that is not going to happen, you have to sell your Art. So embrace customer service as a highlight in your life because it means people are interacting with you and your Art and you are getting their attention and out of that may come sales. Once the cust...

The thing about Art that is really interesting is that most people start to paint and draw because it is fun and we all love to be creative. Most give their work away and it feels good to be appreciated by the people they give their Art to. These people who have been given your Art will tell you how talented and gifted you are and you should sell your work. Now you decide to get serious about your Art and think that it may be a great career move and so you begin to put prices on your work. Once out in the real Art market it is very different from when you were being praised and called very talented by those you gave your work to, now you find you are not selling or worse being ignored. “ What happened, I was told how talented I was?” Most at this point get in and push harder and paint more looking for that right painting and finding reasons why they are not selling, often their only strategy is raise their prices on the advice of an older Artist who said that will ma...

Focus on what is important and will bring you joy. So what is important? So that we know what to focus on. First we must decide what is the most singular important thing to us outside of family and loved ones, then we will have a starting point. Maybe having a successful Art career? That would be important. How will I do that? What will it look like? What will it feel like? How will I recognize it? Questions we must find answers to. So we now have something important to focus on. We must get answers to our questions and then action those answers staying focused on our goal and make it a reality. I can do this!

To earn money you have to sell something. Now if you work for an employer then you sell your time to them. If you are self-employed then you sell a product or a service. Everyone is selling something it is how the market works. I am always amazed how some Artists believe that they don’t need to sell their work and that someone else should do it for them. Now that works great if you are very well known and you have a big following but until that happens you have to sell your work. The better you can sell the more money you will make, so wouldn’t it just make sense to learn how to sell, then you will sell more paintings and have more money. In my course in the Shellshear Art Academy, “ Don’t do what unsuccessful do.” I talk about how to sell and give you strategies in selling your Art and selling yourself all very down to earth and easy to follow. Fear is what stops most people from selling, fear of rejection and fear of strangers Sales is a skill that you can l...

What if I told you that you are not going to be picked? What if I told you no one was coning to discover you? What if I told that your paintings really don’t speak for themselves? “ You mean if I keep doing what I am doing, that this is as good as it gets?” Yes! So you are going to have to change. You will have to pick yourself, build self belief. You have to be the one to discover you, constant self promotion. You will have to be the one to sell your paintings, constant marketing and selling. You can do this, it is just fear that stops you. When you believe in yourself, strangers like us will believe in you also. When you discover yourself and start promoting you, strangers like us will watch and listen and discover you. When you believe in your Art enough to sell it to us, strangers like us will buy it. Believe in yourself, we believe in you, your an amazing Artist.

In selling your Art the big objective is to win the sale not the argument. Be very careful when dealing with strangers when they say something that is wrong or quote an Artist that you know to be wrong, it’s really not important, do not correct them, no one likes to be told they are wrong, especially if they are about to buy your Art piece. I have had buyers in the Gallery say things to me that were completely wrong about an Artist, they are just trying to show me that they were knowledgeable about the Artist, it never worried me and I never corrected them. I wanted the sale to go forward and I did not want to embarrass them but stay on good terms with them. I am sure when they found out what they said was wrong they were grateful that I didn’t embarrass them. It is not important to be always right, what is important is to win the sale not the argument. You are there to sell your Art work not correct people, be generous and kind and let it pass. Don’t let petty s...

We must borrow from the past to invest that experience into the future. There is always something to learn from the past even if its only what not to do next time. Knowing what you did wrong in the past is not enough, you must apply that knowledge to your life. One of the mistakes people make is not to listen to what they say to themselves, their self talk, as most of what they say to themselves ties them to the past. Saying things like, “ I always do that.” “ I knew that would happen to me just like always.” “ That always happens to me.” Statements like these and similar are confessing to yourself that you cannot change and of course your brain obeys you and stuff happens again. Watch what you say to yourself, your careless words tie you to the past, you must say to yourself that you have changed and you do not say those words anymore, because you wi...

People say the Art world won’t change and it already is changing. They told me in the beginning when I started doing videos and blogs that no body would listen, they do. When we step out of our comfort zone, we can make a difference and you can also and do not let anyone tell you that you can’t. You are important and you have all the power you need, just believe, don’t listen to the negative inside and outside and don’t let people tell you what you can’t do, show them what you can do. The most difficult think to do is start and then be consistent and you will make change happen. Some of you will make a big impact on the Art world and some of you will make a big difference in your world and bring change. All of us need to imagine how things might be and then do it .

As the old guard and the diminishing gatekeepers fight to stop the change taking place in the Art industry it is already to late the internet is here to stay and the Art market will continue to change and change. It is the most exciting time for an Artist to live in, every Artist has the opportunity to put their ideas and thoughts out into the world. Once you needed to get on television, or in the newspaper or on the radio to try to get known. Today you can have your own TV station, make a video and put it up on Facebook, you can have your own newspaper, write a blog and post it on the internet, you can have your own radio station, start a pod cast, all these are available to every Artist to use. You do not need permission you can just do it, no one can stop you, the internet has made it that we can all have a voice and we can all tell our story and share our ideas, all it takes is a laptop and an internet connection and you can put your videos and blogs out into the wo...

The ability to think is of much greater value than the ability to remember facts, we have Google for that. If you combine this ability to think with your imagination you impact on your life and the life of those around you. It is not just about a good idea, it is thinking about what you want to accomplish and then using your imagination to visualize this wo rking in your life and acting on the thing you want to accomplish and bringing it into reality. As a person thinks in their heart, so are they. You will empower your personal life. You will empower your Art career. You combine the ability to think with your powerful imagination, visualize it and then act on that visualization and make it a reality. Beware the fear within and the critics without, both are very negative and toxic. The fear within always hits the red light to stop you when you do something exciting, challenging and new, it wants quiet, safe, mediocrity and does not want new and challenging. When the fear comes se...

After years of watching and talking with people who came into the gallery I realized very early that not everyone is going to buy. Some do buy and some don’t buy and I learned not to focus on those who don’t. You could go crazy trying to figure why they don’t buy, is it me, is it the Art, is it the gallery, is it the time of year, I learned to just accept the fact that some don’t buy and leave it at that. Focus on those who do buy and make sure they get the best experience possible buying your Art. Focus on the collectors that matter and build relationships with them. Focus on the collectors who gave you permission to contact them and tell them about your new work. Focus on the collectors who always return, your true fans who love you and your work. Focus on the collectors who spread the word about you, they are the ones who can make a big difference to your career. Selling your Art requires that you focus on your collectors, be patiently building life long rela...