Mark E Shellshear.

In this brand new year we have all been given, keep growing, keep trying and keep going forward with positive song in your heart. We all need to work, so create Art with all your might. We all need someone to love , so love with all your heart. We all need something to believe in, love and hope are good place to start. Remember it is never the right time to do the wrong thing, but it is never the wrong time to do the right thing It is always right to be honest. It is always right to be on time. It is always right to take initiative. It is always right to care. It is always right to give. I hope you have a wonderful and prosperous Art New Year. .

I want to thank you all for making 2021 a good year, despite all the covid stuff and lock downs. I appreciate all the emails, comments, shares, PM's and likes and the wonderful success stories that many of you have sent me, I am overjoyed with what you have all accomplished and the amazing sales some you have generated. I hope 2022 will be the best year yet for all of you and that you accomplish all your goals for next year and prosper wonderfully. I hope in the new year you will challenge yourself to seek out n ew and daring Art innovations to challenge how we create our work always seeking to go to the next level . A ll in all I pray that you are all safe and healthy in the New Year. Happy New Year.

Always be sensitive to others, we are not an island and we all need each other, so be moved by the plight of others, a helping hand and a smile or hug may change the way a person is thinking and feeling. Be inspired to use life and all the emotions and feelings to move and inspire you to paint life and put all these human emotions into paint on your canvas. You are only at this point in time and space for a moment, capture it and record it in paint for others to see and appreciate, your Art reveals you and all you experience in your life. Paint your life as seen through your creative eyes. .

I n our Art practice we must be constantly looking to make things happen. Looking for new ideas that can help us transform our Art business a nd of course we must be always looking for n ew opportunities for sales and often these opportunities come wrapped in some difficulty, but once you work through th e difficulty the opportunity presents itself . Th is is what stops some Artists from grasping onto opportunities because often opportunities come disguised as a problem, an example would be making videos, so we must face everything with the attitude of, where is the opportunity here for me? Don’t quickly pass things up because they look difficult, before you move on take a close look at it and see if there is something there for you. Look deeply into every difficulty, there may be a wonderful opportunity hidden in it, if you did not look for the opportunity you would have missed it. .

Most people are waiting for permission to start, that way it will not be their fault. But it is so much better to give yourself permission and start creating. Key is not waiting for permission but starting. .

Through our videos, blogs, monthly newsletters and storytelling our paintings, this is the way we show and educate people about our work, it will take time for people to grasp and understand what we are doing, so we must be prepared to be consistent in what we do. This is why doing these things will bring attention to you and people will notice you, getting attention is the name of the game. We need to get known, face and name recognition and our Art work needs to get known and we do that by consistently getting in front on the Art public, educating them by talking about our Art and our ideas on videos, blogs, monthly newsletters and by story telling our paintings. Just like painting it takes a decision to do this, as it is work and then to follow up on each relationship being formed. Get your Art known and get your name and face known.

Picasso was probably the most famous celebrity Artist ever, everyone knew Picasso, 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, imagine that. Everyone does not have to love you and buy your work, but everyone needs to know 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. The better you are known, the better you will sell. You are just as important as your Art work.

The things we think about. The things we say. The things we do. Gaining mastery over the inner self is a life long challenge that all of us must work on. Discipline your thoughts, as a person thinks in their heart so are they. Master your tongue, life and death is in the power of the tongue, choose life. Think before you do it, consider your ways and the consequences of your actions. All of us need to work hard on self discipline and making our lives better through ordered change.

You need to get your Art known and get yourself known, name a face recognition. There are so many Artists out there all trying to get known, so you will have to stand out from the crowd by not following what the crowd does, but putting your efforts into blogs, videos, newsletters a nd story telling your paintings, because the majority of Artists do not do these things. Stand out from the crowd and get attention.

Do not be romantic about the term Artist or the Art Business. Let your buyers and family and friends be romantic about who you are, you are in business and you need to treat it as such. Always be working on your self-talk. Whenever you get negative or critical, stop yourself, change your self-talk. It is hard work, but you can do it. Listen to what you say about yourself and stop all negative self-talk, this is so important. If you defeat yourself, no one can change that, you must change your self talk to positive, if you want to change your world. .

I do not believe that we should paint what is popular or fashionable or copy what another Artist has painted because it sold, that is stealing another Artist’s image and this will not lead to a sustainable Art practice. We need to paint as we are led by our Muse, what is our own original work. The Muse comes when we start working in our own original way.

Do not fall into the trap that many Artists fall into where they make excuses for not producing new work and say things like, they are waiting for inspiration. I understand we want to be safe, we all do, but sometimes safe is the wrong place to be. Safe is where the crowd is, safe means doing what others are doing, safe means singing the same song, safe is average, ordinary and safe is invisible. So instead of being safe and invisible and waiting for inspiration to come become you start, as this really is just an excuse, be unsafe! Be unsafe and start now and don’t wait for inspiration, start work and you will be amazed how inspiration will find you, starting is the key. Start some amazing project, paint a painting like no one else can, you can do it, just paint your own imagination, your original Art work.

Many Artists repeat the past because it is safe and the thief will be quiet. But if you are the Artist who wants to make change in your world, then you will need to be so good that the Art world cannot ignore you. Be so passionate about your work that the Art world cannot dismiss you. Make those videos so you get peoples attention and they get to know you and your name. There is always a next level that you can get to. Be the best Artist that you can possibility be for yourself, don’t do it for others, do it for yourself, because you matter. We all have next level ability, it takes determination and a never quit mindset. .

Pay attention to your collectors and those who take the time to view your Art work and comment on them. Appreciate these people, they support your Art practice and make it possible. Care about those who are interested in what you are doing and why you are doing it, we need supporters who engage with us and our Art work and challenge and stimulate us to grow. Care about all the people around you, especially your loved ones who allow you to be creative and pursue your passions, without their support and love, it would be a lonely journey. If you take time to care for those who allow you the privilege to do what you do, you will build a strong Art business. Don’t care about the money, care about your people, money is the result of your Art business success, not the reason for it. .

In the Art business we must go forward with the right attitude and mind set, this will contribute to you being successful . Learn to deal with the thief, because as you learn to discern it and use it to your advantage so fear will not stop you, but point you in the direction that you should go . W hen the thief says, stop you say, l ets go. Careful not to consider any options but being a successful Art business , k now ing that y our original Art is yours , go forward confidently. Performance is important, there is always more that you can do, there is always more that you can achieve and there is always another level you can get to. There must always be constant improvement, as an Artist and as a person . Yes, with every great step of faith there i s always the ability to fail, but that should be the motivation for you to give it all you have and not give up, c onsistently wins.

Of course some of the most important things we can do in selling is to stand out from the crowd, and get the attention of the buying public and you will not do that if you are like everyone else. When we gain the concept that our Art is not just to help us earn a living, but to make a difference in this world, then we will approach selling very differently. Making a difference will mean we will have to have a distinct voice, not be like everyone else, who is trying fit into what they think an Artist should be like. We are to do original work that matters, work that changes people. That means, we will have make it up as we going along, there are no maps for genius, it is about doing it for the first time. It has not been done before and in doing that we make a difference in the lives of the lives of people we inspire with our original Art. .

Life happens to all of us and we forget to do things, because we are all busy. If you haven’t heard from one of your satisfied buyers for sometime, reconnect with them. An email saying hi and show them your new work, because if they have bought paintings from you in the past, they will be open to buy again. The reason we don’t reconnect is usually the story we are telling ourselves. That voice in our head says, they will be annoyed at you for disturbing them. If they wanted to speak to you they would contact you, but they are very busy and you don’t enter into their thoughts. If I contact them, I will be a nuisance. They have not said these words to you, you are saying this to you and maybe sabotaging chances of another sale. They have bought from you in the past and love you and your Art and they will most likely be happy to hear from you, because you are the Artist. Reconnecting is easy, send an email, greet them and show some new work, it’s painless and they will...

Selling is a skill we can all learn, you might not end up a super sales person, but you can learn to be competent at sales. The good thing for Artists is that you are usually selling in a friendly environment, because the people you are selling to like Art, otherwise they would not be in your Art space. So the key to selling to these people is to be friendly, welcoming and polite. We want them to trust us, like us and buy from us and hopefully after they buy from us, they refer us. When you approach sales this way, it is easy to sell to people who love Art like you do.

We need more people to be generous, kind, encouraging and giving in the world we live in. These are the correct character attributes, yes you may not get rich doing them, but you will grow a lot of good fruit on other people and be a wonderful blessing to them. When we help others, we help ourselves. When we love others, we are loving ourselves. Giving of ourselves, our time and our money is far more important than taking all we can get. Take a little time today to think about how you define true success for yourself? Give expecting nothing in return, that’s wisdom applied. Give and it shall be given to you.

  So expect to pay, it is going to cost you perspiration, hard work and patience. F ailure is not the end, it is an opportunity to do it again a little differently, it is never the end unless you give up. L earn from you past setbacks , it is the teacher you need, improve and become better and become the success you desire, so you never need that teacher again. Failure, congratulations now you know what not to do, so do not repeat that, look for a new way, innovate, think outside the box and be creative.  Believe in yourself so strongly that when you close your eyes you can see the fulfilment of your desires, not your past mistakes.                                                                                         ...

You see we have such a wrong view about selling, yes there are those pushy sales people who make you cringe, but really great sales people build relationships and out of that comes the sale. The person buying your painting wants to know you and your story, they want to tell you their story because that’s what interests them the most, and they want to know the story about your painting and why they should love it as much as you do, that’s what will bring on the sale. So after you have engaged them and they know more about you and you have told the m the story of your painting and they love your painting and they decide to buy your painting, of course then you can help them with their purchase. .

I hate to admit it but I have been bored with painting, it lacks the buzz of old, or maybe it’s the predictability of painting, draw this and then fill in the colours. I want to be surprised at what appears on the canvas, to always be on a great adventure each day, starting with one colour and see where the adventure leads. Always looking for interesting shapes and marks and working with my eyes, hands and emotions. So I have started new work and I see it as a real adventure, but there are rules, no drawing just start with a colour and let the muse lead and it is great and scary fun. Great because what you will finish with will be a surprise, and scary because walking on the edge of a cliff always is, it might fail. I am enjoying this new work, because I know it can fail and if it does white paint is my friend. It is a wonderful feeling to finish a painting and see something I was not expecting. Do you end your day of painting and look at your work and are you delighted...

You need to put yourself and your Art in front of strangers. You will do that through using social media, Art shows, group and one person shows and showing at every opportunity that you can find, especially using videos. You cannot be like all the rest, you must create attention and get people to look and see your work and you, that is not easy in a crowded market. I know this sounds daunting but really it isn’t, because 90% of the other Artists will be trying to hide, they will not make videos because their work speaks for itself and sells itself. So you must be the one Artist who strangers recognize from your videos and your social media presence, they must know you before they walk in the door and greet you like a friend even though you have never meet them before this meeting. The power of face and name recognition.

Being an Artist that creates great Art work, then has to sell that Art work, means they are in sales. What do you mean? You make Art and you have to sell it, so you an Artist in sales. I was talking to man and I asked what he did for a living and he said he subcontracted to a building firm. And I replied. “ Oh, so you are in sales also?” He answered. “No, I drive a truck and do deliveries, I am not in sales.” I replied. “But you are in sales, you sell your time and you have to negotiate a contract to sell your time.” Even the coffee shop I go to each week understands they are in sales. They are friendly, welcoming, remember my order and always try to up sell me and thank me when I leave, they understand they are in sales and I have to have a great experience, so I will come back again next time. We are all in sales, wouldn’t you think we would learn to be good at selling, especially as we need to sell our Art?

  What are you doing each day is helping you to accomplish your goals or hurting your chances of accomplishing your goals? We must always be doing what will help us to accomplish our goals and that is usually the hard stuff, the stuff that we don’t feel like doing. If we only do the stuff we feel like doing, then we won’t accomplish very much, because most people don’t feel like doing anything hard or confronting. If we want to live our perfect life then we are going to have to dismiss, I don’t feel like doing that, and deal with the fact that the hard stuff has to be done. What we must do to accomplish our perfect life. Create good Art. Now the hard stuff, sell and market our Art and ourselves and make regular videos, that’s marketing also. Follow up on customers. Personal development, which includes regular exercise. You do not have to feel like doing it, but you do it, the hard stuff, because that is what will bring you your perfect life. If the perfect li...

We can all be influenced and inspired by great Art and admire great Artists, but that does not mean we should be their clones, our desire must be to seek out the new and challenging and create new original work and push the boundaries of Art. Create beautiful original paintings, that's got to be better than being a copy of someone else. A copy no matter how well it is painted and it can be painted even better than the original, but it can never be an original painting ever, it is destined to always be a factory copy and no more. Now just because these copies sell does not make them legitimate Art, no it just means that someone bought them. They can call it Art if they want but it is not Art it is a copy and a fake. Art is something that comes from within, it’s not designed to shock and tantalise, it is to move peoples emotions, to touch their inner soul, to change them for the better, that is what great Art does, copying will never capture the true essence of being the...

This thought is what stops most Artists from achieving the greatness within them, because the idea that I can do what ever I want to do, is so hard. Why? Because we all want someone to tell us what to do or tell us we are doing the right thing. We seek permission and validation not freedom. We do this because if it fails we can blame someone else, but if we go out and be original, new and create work never seen before, if that fails it is our fault. Fear stops so many from creating great, original, new Art. You do not need permission, just go and do it. You do not need the approval of others, listen to your muse and your approval comes through doing your new original work. ...

  Fertile ground, does not mind what kind of seed you plant it because it will cause it to grow and return to you an abundant crop. The mind is fertile ground also and it does not care what you plant in it, it will also cause it to grow and return a harvest of the same . What are you planting into your mind? As a person thinks in their heart, so they become. Positive in, positive out. For all Artists and creative people the least amount of negative stuff you put into your mind the more positive, creative work you will produce. Artist beware what you are feeding your mind, it may be hindering you from fulfilling your destiny as an Artist...

Change comes by small incremental steps which lead to big changes in our lives, it takes time, patience is needed. Change comes by learning a little, action it into your life, acquire the skill, then learn a little more, action it into your life, acquire more skills and repeat the process. Change takes self discipline and patience, the rewards of success are worth a little pain. Always taking the line of least resistance, produces an very unsatisfying life. Self discipline to change and a little patience, produces a successful life. If you will change, everything will change for you. .

Somet imes Artists when you get the first excuse you assume the sale is over, they have not said no, just an excuse and they are still looking at the painting and talking . Do not assume its over, keep them engaged in the painting and ask questions , you will be amazed how many of then do decide to buy and they say I will take the painting, without you asking for the sale. They want to decide to buy and they want to buy, but they do not want to be sold to, it is the story we tell ourselves. When you assume the sale is over you lose enthusiasm and your passion will subside, so always assume it’s on and ignore the excuse and even the first no . This is eas ier said than done I know, because we don’t like to hear excuses and we take it personally , like we are be ing rejected, so learn to ignore excuses unless the y walk away and are not interested any more. Important if they do start to leave, continue to connect with them and keep building the relationship, they will...