Mark E Shellshear.

  If you don’t produce work, you don’t get success. If you want to be a great painter, then you are going to have to produce great paintings. That is easy to say, but how do I do that? You have to paint the bad paintings to get to the good ones and so with anything else you choose to do. When you first do videos people may laugh at them, they did with mine, but you will improve each time you make a video and the laughter will fade away to applause. When you start writing your blog, story telling, people may mock your average content, they did with mine, but that’s ok it will improve each time you write another blog or tell another story and the laughter will fade and then they will say thank you for being generous and helping others. The lesson to learn here is that no one starts out perfect or successful, but starting out is the first big hurdle and then persisting each day and getting better and better. If you really want to be a successful Artist, resilience and co...

People don’t buy expensive luxury cars because they are looking for inexpensive motoring, no they buy the luxury car knowing that everything about the car, including servicing is very expensive. They buy it because of the story they tell themselves, this is what someone like them does. For them it’s easier to buy the car, than to change their story. They act out the story and make it reality. Many Artists tell them selves similar stories, I will be successful if I can win that competition, I need to win it, I need to get into that gallery, I need to get that certain collector, I need to get published, I need to get on tv and radio, because this is the story they tell themselves. It’s a story because getting one of those things to happen will not guarantee success. Change your story from I need to win that competition, eliminate I need and change it to I am a selling Artist, that’s a great positive story, now go and make it a reality. .

  Don’t do stuff because you can and it’s easy, do stuff that matters. We can’t think short term and paint some stones to sell, because that’s what selling in the local markets right now, we must think long term. It’s a quick dollar I know and we can do that stuff it’s easy, but in doing that stuff will it help you to achieve your long term Art goals, creating and selling wonderful paintings? Or will we get known as the Artist who paints stones and that’s what people will want from us. You will have cash flow and a market, but it’s not the market that will matter to your long term Art business. Your painted stones won’t make it into high end galleries or into the auction houses, only the houses of people who like painted stones. You are an amazing Artist so don’t do stuff because you can, do stuff that matters to your core business, creating and selling your wonderful Art works.

Thoughts grow stronger when feed them with repetition, especially negative thoughts. The more you repeat excuses or why you can’t do something the more convinced you are that it is true . Deciding every day to be grateful for your loved ones, your health and the life you have as an Artist is a powerful vaccination against a defeatist mentality and excuses. A positive attitude backed up with work and no excuses makes for a positive life. Don’t get trapped into feeling sorry for yourself and then making excuses for why you can’t do it or learn it or why you can't work. See everything in life, good or bad as an opportunity to grow and be successful. Make each day a special day, a day of optimism and gratefulness, don’t fertilize the weeds of negativity, build a strong positive attitude each day and feed the fruit trees of possibilities and bring forth good fruit in your life. Life is really to short not to live it to the full everyday and be grateful for the opportunities...

  Human beings don’t make rational decisions when buying they make emotional ones. Yet so many Artists leave the selling of their Art up to their painting, hanging in an Art fair or gallery. My attitude is that painting’s don’t sell themselves, people sell Art. If people don’t make rational decisions when buying, then we should really be appealing to their emotions when we sell our Art. How do we do that? Include a short story about your Art that will connect to the emotions of the viewer, it just needs to be a few short meaningful lines. It might not seem like the right thing for some Artists to do as they believe that their paintings sell themselves, but if you are emotionally involved with your Art work then express it in a short story as most people make their buying decisions based on their emotions.

  We all being watched by someone all the time, so we always need to be doing the best we can do and being the best we can be. Out there young Artists, new Artists are watching what older Artists are doing and trying to emulate them, to be like them. Be an inspiration to those watching you, lead by example. Beware of the enemies of being the best Artist that you can be. Fix complaining, encourage and see the best in each situation. Eliminate criticism, find something good to say, encourage always. Never be selfish, there is enough success for everyone. Don’t make it about you, be generous. Never be jealous of others, promote others. Understand fear, use the “thief” to guide you, it says stop, you say go. You are unique and original, so put that into your Art and through you doing that you will reveal your inner creative self and inspire others. Always be the best Artist and best person you can be, because people are looking for someone to inspire them and encourag...

  The object is to sell your paintings and get them onto walls of strangers. Then in turn they introduce you to more strangers and you convince these strangers to invest in your work at prices that they will consider reasonable for an unknown Artist. I want these strangers to become your collectors and your friends and life long collectors of your work and the price of your work will rise as you become more popular and more collectable. I am not interested in you selling one of your paintings to someone, I want you to be able to sell all your paintings that you produce in your Artistic career to your collectors and strangers. It’s not about the short term rewards it is about building an Art career, putting paintings onto the walls of collectors and strangers. Selling paintings to strangers. Turning strangers into collectors. Turning collectors into friends. Not selling one painting but selling a lifetime of paintings.

Work hard on your positive self talk and determine to be positive and be optimistic in all your Art activities. Always be working hard on yourself and your attitudes. Developer a great smile and a happy charming personality, no one responds well to the brooding Artist, especially buyers. Start the process of building your Art career over years not months and be patient it takes time. Set goals to where you want to be and what you want to achieve over the next few years and work hard to achieve each one of them. And finally, be gentle on yourself, life can be brutal so don't help it, be nice to you, care about you and love you, so you are able to care and love others. .  

  I ask Artists what are they doing to get known? An interesting answer I got was, it will all work out. It will all work out sounds confident, but what if it doesn’t work out? What then is plan B? There is no plan B because there is no plan A, it will all work out, is not a plan or a goal, it’s just hope and you don’t want to bet your Art career on hope. You must have a plan, first of all you must know what you want and be able to articulate it. It must be written down and it must have steps on how you will do it. Know what you want, have a plan to accomplish that, steps on how you will do it and then the important part, do it, go, go, go.

  Walking wasn’t as safe as crawling but you learned to it, you kept getting back up. Riding a bike was not easy but learned to do it, you learned from mistakes. Drawing a good likeness in a portrait wasn’t easy but you learned to do it, practice made perfect. If you don’t produce you don’t get to where you want to go and there will be setbacks. There is a lesson in every setback. You can have a moan and be angry about it or you can learn from it and go forward and improve. Analyze the setbacks, use them to learn and impro ve .

  People are fascinated with Artists and want to know about you and understand your Art work. Therefore c ustomer service starts with building a relationship with the stranger when they are first standing in front of you admiring your painting. 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. This is the time to be very focused on what they are saying. Learn to listen carefully and talk less. Different people hear things differently. Different people see things differently. Don’t interrupt and give good feedback. Assume the sale is always on and hear what they are really saying. Caring for your customer means that customer service starts before the point of sale and goes on for the rest of your relationship with that collector.

  The Artists who say they cannot sell during covid, are right The Artists who say they can sell during covid, are right. How can they both be right? Those who say they can’t, won’t try. Those who say they can, will do all they can to make it happen. Mindset stops us or propels us forward. .

It is so easy to be our own worst critic and that is not what we want or will give us good future outcomes. W e want 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. Positive thoughts produce positive words and positive actions which have positive future outcomes. Beware, the opposite is also true.

They could be Artists and you can easily insert anyone here when it comes to doing new things to improve your Art business. Not interested.. These are easy to spot, because they say, Not interested. Yes I should do that. These are also easy to spot, because they say, Yes I know I should do that, but just let me think about it first, and nothing happens. Yes ok I will do that, and don’t. And there are those who do it. These are the ones whose business will change for the better because they, do it. I have learned that you do not try and change the first three and work with the ones who do it. You see you can’t help the ones who need it, the first three. You can only help the ones who deserve it, because they will do it. You cannot change others you can only change yourself.  

  Success is like the dripping tap, it takes time to fill the bucket and you will have to be patient. Most people put the bucket under the tap to fill it and come back every hour to see if it has filled. After a few hours and if it’s not full, they kick the bucket away and loose water water that was in it and give up in disgust. If they had waited 48hours and come back, the bucket would full and probably overflowing. It takes time to be successful, at least 10 years, this is not a sprint it’s a marathon so prepare to be there at the end. Patience and consistency win the day, drip, drip, drip. .

  I will write my blog once I can write a great blog. I will make that video when I am perfect at it. I will start painting when I know it will my masterpiece. These are certainly not good strategies that lead you to becoming an overnight success. The best strategy is to give everything you do your best effort and improve on that every day. Waiting to be perfect is an awful strategy.

  Isn’t is interesting that more Artists aren't more creative. Yes there are a lot of wildly creative Artists but far more who are not. The two things that hold many back are fear and the inability to implement what’s in their imagination. Fear is an emotion that needs to be confronted to overcome and yes fear is also that voice in our head that says, what if it doesn’t work, what if you fail, what if people ridicule you? Yet we all dream up wonderful things in our imagination, yet few implement those amazing things. We have got to convince ourselves that it’s alright if somethings doesn’t work out, otherwise we will never attempt new things. Confront the fear and overcome it and action what you imagine, because it’s ok if somethings don’t work out. Every experiment is a journey into it may or may not work, and that’s what is exciting.

  If you want to change the way you create your Art don’t let public opinion sway you. It’s not that they are right, it’s that your Art is not wrong. We all look at the Impressionists and think they created wonderful paintings, because we can see them through appreciative eyes, but it wasn’t always that way. When they first showed their new Art they were ridiculed, it caused riots and they were dismissed as crazy, the public couldn’t see their work and therefore it was wrong. Yet over time they were accepted and honored and today we see them as great masters. It’s not wise to follow public opinion when you are doing something new because their opinion can be very wrong because they cannot see it, it’s to different and therefore wrong, until it’s not and then it’s accepted. It’s not that they are right, it’s that your Art is not wrong.

Personal development will make it easier for you to sell and promote yourself. Building confidence and self awareness into your life through self improvement, working on all areas of your life and especially on people skills. Most people lack confidence and are worried they will make a mistake and what other people will think of them and feel that most people are better than themselves. If this is the story going on in their heads then selling and self promotion are nearly impossible to do. Most people believe they are different but the fact is they are like everyone else dealing with lack of confidence, lack of self awareness and that’s why so many struggle. Self improvement is by far the most important thing you should work on and it is the one thing most people ignore, because it’s hard to change. Work on self improvement and have the resolve to do it until you see the positive results in your life and business. .

The fear, the critic inside us does not want us to do anything that would bring pressure and change into our lives, it wants the next 10 years to be just like the last 10 years and if that’s what you want then don’t change. If you want the next 10 years to be the best 10 years of your life, then you will have to change. We all need to work on those little bad habits that we know we have, a little self discipline makes such a difference. What makes the difference among Artists is the Artist themselves, of course their work must be of a high standard, but if everything is equal with the paintings then the Artist makes the difference. Make a difference to your Art career, work as hard on you as you do on your Art, if you become a better person, then your world will become a better place and you will be a better Artist . It’s not the paintings that make the difference, it’s the Artist themselves.  

I always think it is interesting that the one thing every Artist has to do other create great Art is to sell that Art. If selling is a seriously important part of our career, then why don’t we put more time and effort into it? If you don’t sow, then you will not reap a harvest. And so with selling. Every opportunity you get to talk to strangers about your Art, take it. Our two tasks are to get sales and get known. Our priority is facial recognition and name recognition. And the more known you become, the more sales you will get. .  

  S et up a life you don’t want to escape from, do work that matters and you are proud of. If we are doing what we choose to do, then do it consistently and to our best ability. If we have to do it, we have no choice at all, we will not do our best work. Your best work will be what you choose to do, what you want to do. Say no to distractions that take you off your path, your Art journey, because distractions are like white ants they eat away at your commitment and consistency and it is usually to late when you realize that there is a problem. Commitment and consistency will keep you on your Art journey, learn to say no to distractions. .

It is very human to want everyone to like us, but the truth is they won’t and that’s ok. Then you must be confident and say, I am not for everyone, but I am for those who like me. So our real job outside of creating our Art is to get ourselves in front of our audience. We must ignore the critics, don’t try and convert them, you will waste your time and you most likely will not change them. Once you have an audience you must work hard to keep them, if you say you will do something do it, consistency is the key. Get your self in front of your audience and look to keep building that audience with great Art, compelling stories, short concise videos, consistent after sale service and a very friendly personality. .

  D uring this unfortunate time for many Artists it has proved to be a wonderful opportunity for sales, because collectors cannot go to the galleries and many are contacting Artists direct and buying directly from the Artists. It is an opportunity to promote yourself and your Art on as many platforms as possible. Post your Artwork with positive, uplifting stories. People are looking for the positive message. People want to be inspired. Your future success is based on you finding new people and getting your Art in front of them. There is so much noise out there, so you have to break through and get noticed and it’s not just some days, it’s every day. O ur job is to get our work noticed, to get peoples attention, to get recognized and to get sales.

  Never consider people as one sale, think of them as life long buyers, if you do this you will see them as friends to be made because you are going to know them for a long time. Now to do this you will need to be able to regularly contact them, so after the sale has taken place make sure you get their email address off them and ask permission so you can send them you monthly newsletter. Keeping in contact with them will allow you to keep your work in front of them and greatly increase the opportunity for the next sale because the profit is in the repeat business. Most Artists let themselves down with after sales service as they feel that they are annoying the buyer, but if you ask permission and they say yes then they will be anticipating your email and that’s good for your business. Learn to see every customer as a potential life long buyer and friend . .

  All personal breakthroughs begin with a change of mindset. U nderstanding why so should change. Act out what you should do. Repeat and repeat until it becomes a part of who you are, a habit . Be the person who does what you say you will do. To transform you takes discipline.