Mark E Shellshear.

  Being a successful Artist is learning the discipline of focusing on the things that you can control and not on the things that you cannot control. To much emotional energy is wasted on things that we have no control over, so learn to focus on what you can change. Within your Art practice you have the ability to change everything, you can change your style, your medium, your work habits and everything relating to your Art and yourself, but most seem to focus more on what they cannot change. You cannot change the government, you can rail at the wind but it will make no difference. You cannot change the economy, it is the way it is. You cannot change your neighbours attitudes, they are the way they are. You cannot change your family, they will still do what they want to do The only things you can change is your Art practice and yourself. If you work on fixing all your own faults, you will change your world. The greatest key to your success is within you. It al...

Many of us read self help books to do exactly that, help ourselves. Now I am a great believer in taking notes and putting them in my daily journal so they can be actioned into my life. One practice I employ is go back some weeks in my journal and see what I was to action and have I done that yet? If I have not I have two choices. Do it now or cancel it. If I cancel it then I have wasted my time reading the book and writing down the thoughts. That is one self help tip that is not going to help me, lost. Or I do it now and implement it into my life immediately. Once you have done this you have helped yourself, which is why they are called self help books. You have to help yourself.

It is very easy to get caught up in the race to be successful which causes some to take short cuts that in the long term will damage their good name and their Art business. Do not trade off fast sales of questionable copied art at the expense of your good reputation and a name for quality original work. Your good reputation is what will support you into 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 Art that is yours and yours alone. Have the notoriety of being reliable and that you do what you say you will do, personal standards are important. If you want a long career in the Arts build strong, always knowing exactly what you want and establishing good ethical standards in your Art business. There is no fast way to be an overnight success it takes time and you must pay your dues. Be patient and build your good name. ...

Even though with so many Art videos being made many are not chasing attention. The main reason we make an Art video is to get people to know, like and trust us. We want them to know our name and our face and if they then like us, they are much more likely to trust us. When we meet these people in person they already know, like and trust us and they will talk to us because we are not strangers to them, so our job of introducing ourselves to them is already done through the videos The power of the Art video is not that people just see our Art work but they get to now us and we are not longer a stranger to them but a welcomed friend. People who know, like and trust us are far more open to buy from us because we are not a stranger to them, that is why videos are so important. Make videos with you and your Art in them talking about you and your Art and get peoples attention so they will know, like and trust us.  

  It is your painting so paint to your expectations, not the expectations of others. People will always offer good advice and direction, but this is your Art journey, your passion, your creativity, your painting and you control the final result. So many Artists are intimidated by the opinions of others that they paint what others want rather than what they, the Artist wants. Original thought is the key and original thought comes from educating yourself, reading books and experimenting with different mediums and searching for your vision. You will never discover your vision through trying to meet others expectations if anything it will deaden original thought and vision, because it must come from within you not from someone else. Use original thought combined with your imagination and then paint what your imagination sees. Paint your vision and change your world, do not let the world change you.

Looking for inspiration in unexpected places outside of the Art world. If we are only looking within the Art world then others have already found it. We must look in other places like in furniture design or landscape garden design. One Artist I know likes to stare at the branches of trees especially the ones that are twisted and cross each other and take on radical designs and they incorporate what they see in their abstract paintings. In one on the places I walk the surface of the road is all cracked and someone has filled these cracks with tar, I think they poured it on the cracks and now there is these wonderful abstract designs all over the road and I always admire it and think it would make a wonderful painting. Look for your inspiration in unexpected places, it may inspire you to make change and create more beautiful new work.

Every painting has value, but every painting is not valuable. Value is not just in the painting, because your skill and your personality also adds to value of the painting. If you take a valuable painting and remove the signature it becomes worthless, but because of the signature it is of great value. Yes there is value in the painting but because the master did it, it becomes very valuable. So in the beginning of our Art careers it is our paintings that are valued at so much but as your fame and reputation grows, that same painting now gets more valuable because you did it and who you are becoming as an Artist. The key to seeing your prices rise is for you the Artist to become more valuable to the market place and you will do that by getting the attention of strangers because it will be strangers who will make you famous. Value for the Artist is created through them being friendly and an approachable person, marketing their paintings through videos, blogs, storytelling t...

  To often Artists quit when times get hard. It can all go wrong, we have all been there, sales can be slow or nonexistent, rejection and criticism can be harsh and hurting and for some it just all gets to hard. The problem isn’t just that it gets very hard but that they mistakenly tell themselves a story that this will last for ever. That’s why people quit they can’t see that this for a season and that it will pass and that it’s not forever. The storms of life move on, night becomes day and winter is followed by spring and summer. It is much better to understand that it will change and consolidate in hard times and tell yourself a new story. This too shall pass, it won’t last forever.

  Dreams are your promised land, your goals before the miracle of work turns them into reality and you live them. If hard work alone was the key to great success and wealth then labourers who dig holes would be the richest people in the world but they are not. It’s like in the creation story, God takes 6 days to create the world and then rests, now whether you believe in this or not is not important but the lesson here is. God had a great idea of creating the world and had to work 6 days to make it happen. The key is three fold, having a great idea of creating something and then the self belief to go for it and the determination to make it happen through hard work. How do I know it was hard work? God had to rest on the seventh day, now he was God and needed rest, so it must have been hard work. God worked and the miracle came through the work. It is not just hard work, it is having a vision, a big idea and the self belief to go for it when it seems crazy to o...

The one thing that holds people back is fear, the thief. The thief does not like change and it will tell you anything to stop you from changing. The thief does not want you to do anything that would bring pressure and change into your life, 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. Just work on those little habits that you know you have, a little self discipline makes such a difference. Just little changes brings big change years down the road of life. If you know you are shy and you have trouble talking to strangers or making a speech, work on that and fix that, do a course, read books, practice giving a speech in front of a mirror. You will be surprised how you can overcome the thief and learn to speak in public and talk to strangers, it’s just a skill to learn. Improve me, improve my Art. ...

  Do not let the thief stop you from being different and creating your own Art world around you, push the boundaries, think differently and experiment. There are no invitations coming or someone to give you initiative, you must invite yourself and give yourself permission and take the initiativ e, because there are no set rules or certain ways to do something , no 10 step plan, no map, you have to make it up as you go, what an opportunity to be creative and use your imagination and do it. T he Artist of today is not just a creative Artist but also a marketer on the internet and the internet has changed the Art market forever. What opportunities does it open for you?

The Artist can now decide where they will show their work and where they will sell it because t he middle man has been cut out and the Artist because of the internet can sell direct ly to the collector without the need of a Gallery or dealer. We live in a time where the unknown Artist ha s a better chance of selling their Art than ever before and that is because of the Internet and that is good for the Artist and the Art business . With this new opportunity also come s a great er responsibility for the Artist to get their name out there and that will mean a lot more work. T oday we live in a very crowded Art market so every A rtist is going to have to work hard to get attention and get known, which means face recognition and name recognition. The challenge is to be creative and innovate with your Art marketing using videos, blogs and stories of your Art work . There are no rules, so experiment and be different put your work out there, show it, talk about it and ...

Take the pressure off yourself you must understand that you do not have to paint a masterpiece every time you pick up the brush. So many Artists place themselves under so much pressure by doing this, because the story they are telling themselves is not true. The fear in us wants us to never try and do anything challenging, different or outside the box, it wants us to be safe, quiet and average, so the best way to get you to do that is to tell you that you must make every painting a masterpiece. If you do that you will put yourself under so much pressure that you will become so discouraged at not being able to produce a masterpiece or the perfect painting and you will eventually find every time you go to paint you will get painters block or the fear of the white canvas and you will stand and say “ I don’t know what to paint?” The thief wins. So never try to paint your masterpiece or the perfect painting, because it will never happen, you will never be satisfied with what ...

Digging ditches is hard work. Tiling roves in the middle of summer is hard work. Labouring is hard work and backbreaking. Painting paintings is not hard work. Making videos and writing blogs is not hard work. They are emotional work and can be draining. It can be scary work because you are open to be criticised and you have to deal with the fear. Physically hard work is backbreaking and it time life ending. Emotional work can be heartbreaking but it also can change your life dramatically in a positive way. Embrace your emotional work as a marvellous opportunity to create amazing Art work and continue to strive hard for excellence.

If there is a road block up ahead then find another way to go around it. Our perseverance must be to just do it. Promising yourself you will never give up. Do not promise others, only promise yourself and be accountable to yourself. Keep painting until it works. Keep showing your paintings until it works. Pay the price until it works. Be patient until it works. Never give up until it works. Do what you can do. Do the best you can do. Be the best Artist that you can be. Be wise, realise that it’s the work that creates the opportunity because the wise Artist knows that the miracle is in the work. Artists need to approach their Art practice in this way, failure is not an option, so they must be relentless in what they do. Be focused on success and what you must do to achieve it. Do not consider you will fail, you cannot consider failure, just keep doing what is necessary until you find a way over or under or around the roadblocks. Be determined to perseve...

  In  an ancient text it says, “ He who tills his land will have plenty of food, But he who follows empty pursuits will have poverty in plenty.” Those who work hard on their own land/Art business and not concern themselves with what others are doing, will prosper. Consider your work, “till ing your ground” do not worry about what others are doing and saying be concerned with your Art business, otherwise you will be distracted from your work, from being diligent in your “field.” Being like everyone else will not help you to stand out from the crowd and get attention, but it will make you accepted by the crowd. If that is what you want, that is fine but you will only be a reflection of everyone else as they will be of you and your creative individuality is lost and so is your ability to stand out and get the attention of strangers. The best way to help your peers, is not by everyone becoming the same, but by your example, being different and a leader to show ot...

To win the game you must play it. Success doesn’t just happen it takes had work and self discipline and it’s a contest. Not a contest against others but against the two you’s inside you. The fearful you. And the fearless you. Unfortunately with most people the fearful one wins out to many times, because it is the easy thing to do. To be fearful is easy, just sit and stay comfortable and accept that this is all that life is about. To be fearless is hard, it is uncomfortable and scary but you have to do it because it is the road to success.

I have Artists saying to me that success is taking to long and it’s hard. I often say compared to what? We must always look back and measure how we are going now compared to the years past. Artists have to compare themselves to themselves not to others. Now you can measure a lot of things in our Art business. We can measure our production, are we creating more or are we neglecting our Art? We can measure sales, have we sold more this year than in the past? We can measure how many collectors and supporters we have, through our social media contacts. We can measure how many people are wanting our newsletter now. All these things are very measurable compared to our past years and if we can see increase and growth in these areas then we are doing well. Success takes time so we must be patient and when compare, we must compare ourselves to ourselves.

  We create from our own reality. What we have sold ourselves on, mostly works. What we are not sold on, mostly doesn’t work. Our success is in what we believe. People say how do I know if I am sold on something? Belief first than comes effort. Effort follows belief. What you put your time into shows your belief or what you are sold on. No one can make you, you choose to do what you believe in. Imagine the success you want, believe you can achieve it and then work very hard to make it your reality.

In the sales situation buyers protect themselves, make excuses and sometimes will simply lie to get away from you. Some buyers will over exaggerate interest, to flatter you only to ask for a discount at the end. They seem red hot and you are excited and believe they will buy and then they ask for discount, you say no and they go from red hot to ice cold and say they will think about it. The truth is try not to say no but use a question or an interrupt. Using an interrupt you could say, “ It may not be for you?” This has the effect of bringing a little confusion into the mix. And they will probably come back ask what do you mean? I would then say, “ I get the feeling that this painting may not be for you?” You do this to get them to disqualify themselves and say, “ yes you are right.” Or to say, “ no, no I really like the painting,” and we are then back on track. I do not want to defend, no discount, but I do want them to commit or say no. I am happy with both o...