Mark E Shellshear.

Don’t let people empty their garbage in your living room. Stay away from critical, angry and negative people, they will infect you with the same negativity if you spend time with them. They always present their story from them being the victim, then they can pour out their garbage into your head, because you feel sorry for them. Just say no and walk away. Your mental health is more important than that relationship. You may need to cut some people out of your life and put your time into happy, positive, enthusiastic people who make you feel good, not feel sorry for them.

Time lost is time lost, no body can make more time. My friends, be diligent at your work and when you are working, work. Work turns, ideas, faith and dreams into reality. Embrace work that is where the miracle is, and don't rest to long.

I get contacted by Artists telling me horror stories dealing with galleries, Art fairs, group shows and of course commissions, they tell me how they go to collect their work and it’s not in the gallery, Art fair or Art show and they have no record of it being delivered and you loose your work. Same with commissions, buyer wants it done a certain way and when they come to get the painting, they are not so happy with it and refuse to pay or they made a deposit and refuse to pay the remainder and the Artist is devastated and looses again. It is our responsibility to protect our Art business, for starters never leave a painting with anyone without a delivery receipt, that they sign and date, even if they say they will do their own, it doesn’t matter, have your own delivery receipt that they sign and date or you won’t deliver it. With commissions, never do one without a contract, stating the full price, the exact size and a photo of what they want painted and a 50% nor refundable de...

  Are the buyers and collectors looking for you? How will they find you? What are you doing to make it easy to be found? Wishing and hoping won’t do it? If you are doing what everyone else is doing, then you will get the same results they are getting, which is probably not much. At some point you will have to do the hard stuff, the scary stuff, the stuff you don’t want to do, like sell to strangers, make that video, contact that past collector. Tomorrow will be to late, you should have done it ages ago, today is a good time to start. The next thing after you do the scary, hard stuff, is post it. Not just today, but tomorrow and every day after to grow your Art career. Why should I do this? So they can find you.

Don’t wait to be discovered, discover yourself and put yourself out into the Art market and get attention. Nobody is looking for you, so you have to get strangers attention through great Art, making videos, writing blogs and story telling your Art and talking to strangers. If it was easy everyone would be successful, there is work to be done as well as creating your Art. Be the help you want, help yourself, your are responsible for your success, be brave, go forward, be uncomfortable because that is where success is hiding, not in comfortable and easy.

You must not question or doubt your Artistic ability, because if you do it will be hard to convince others that you are amazing. You must be convinced your work is great, before I will be convinced. You must love your work, before I will love your work. You must have a great story about your work, before I will get emotionally involved. How we see our work, is how others will as well. The truth is you must be sold on your Art, before you can sell it to me. .

Asking for a referral, it’s something many Artists will not do, because they are afraid they will upset their buyer, but this the best time to ask, they happy with you and now own one of your painting. I call referrals social proof, because it says to the public my paintings sell and especially if a satisfied customer is the one who refers you. Simply, when you have a happy customer, ask them if they know any other collectors who might be interested in you Art. Why, because people like them, know people like them. Most collectors are happy to refer you, because if you make it to the big time and get good prices, how intelligent were they to collect you and refer you. Never miss the opportunity as the buyer is about to go say. “ I wonder if you could help me, do you know any people who may be interested in my Art?”

Change is inevitable, whether you like it or not things change. If you are the first in your group to do it, you will get criticism. People always criticise successful people, they are trying to drag the successful Artist down to their level, not rise up and make themselves into a successful person. Another man wrote, “ First they ignore you, then they hate you, then they admire you.” Its a three step process. Now it is hard when people attack you and criticise you, we all want to be liked, but remember those are just people you once knew, move on and keep striving for success. You will always get critics, so see them this way, you must be doing something right, so keep building your life, unfortunately critics are part of life, so ignore them and stay away from them. Become successful and you be surprised how once good friends who are left behind become your strongest critics, criticism is often born out of the failure of others. Success requires personal change and...

One sale of your paintings does not pay for your whole life, as important as a sale is, you will survive without it. Do not compromise your principles. Know how you want to happen and then proceed in the sale, no discount is no discount, or if you give discount of 5% do not go lower, no sale is worth the compromise, because it can become a rush to the bottom and there is no win for you at the bottom. Know what you want to happen in the sale, set your standards and do not move from them. No sale is worth the compromise of your set standards. There is always another day, another stranger and another sale.

Artists when you are marketing your work, the more price points you offer the greater the opportunity to sell. In the past I have sold business card size acrylic paintings up to A 4 on pa p er, large canvas paintings, painted bottles, painted stones and rocks and painted broken flower pots, never underestimate what people will buy. There are many people out there who would like an original Art work but do not have the funds to do that, so give them the opportunity to own one of your paintings by creating various price points in your work. I am not saying to sell your painting for less, but d o paint smaller paintings to meet the budget of those who do not have a lot of money to spend. Marketing yourself this way opens doors for you to get your paintings into houses you would not normally get into, even a business card size painting is an original Art work. Be a smart Art marketer and market your original Art work across different price points, variety and choice for your c...

To follow your Artistic dreams and be a successful Artist besides creating your Art, the most important skill you can learn is how to sell your art. Many Artists believe that it is the responsibility of the Galleries to sell their Art, but there are not enough Galleries to serve all Artists so you must sell your Art. In these covid times many galleries are not opening and sales must come from social media. We must be prepared to suffer through the pain of no sales until you learn to sell, or give up. You must prepare to sacrifice your time to learn the skill of selling and you must deal with fear and self doubt as well as the critics and the haters. The good news is once you learn to sell your own Art and you start selling, you get to keep all the money and you will be a successful selling Artist and that would make all the pain of learning the new skill of selling, worthwhile. Short term pain for long term rewards.

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 you 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. The only things you can change is your Art practice and you. If you work on fixing all your own faults, you will change your world. No body can motivate you to do it, no one can force you to do it, you have to make a quality decision to change and then act on that decision. Making the decision to change and doing it. It all starts within you, change you and you change your world.  

Failing and rejection are temporary but giving up is permanent. Friends and family may have good intentions but you live with the results and remember, people come and people go, but you must live with you always. Do not associate with fake and plastic people, life is to short to waste it with people who wear a mask. If you are not happy with where you are right now, then change. If your world is not what you want right now, then change it. If you change, your whole world will change. The decision is yours. It has been said to me recently, that it is easy to say change but hard to do. No it is not, start with small changes, read a book instead of watching tv, have positive input not negative. Do a course, instead of doing nothing. Watch some personal development videos on You Tube, and don't say yes I should do that, just do it. It is your responsibility to use you finite time to develop and change you and then your whole world will change. .

Strangers make you famous. Strangers need to buy your paintings, not only family and friends. Strangers will become your collectors. Strangers have all the money you will earn from selling your paintings. Strangers will make you famous. So it is very important that you meet lots of strangers, turn them into friends and buyers and into long term collectors. I must put my face and name out into the world doing videos and blogs, because if they don’t know me then they can’t find me or buy from me. Now if all this is true it would seem that I need to work as hard on my character and self improvement as I do on my Art. If I want things to get better, I will have to get better, so I can put forward the best me that I can be. .

The key to learning new things is, self belief, discipline, determination and a deep desire to be better tomorrow than you are today. If you want your life to change, you must change, its takes discipline. If you want the next five years to be like the last five, then do nothing and change nothing. If you want the next five years to be better, then you will need to become better. Always the choice is always ours alone, some do, some don't? It is quite amazing, if you think you will fail you most likely will, because the things you think about the most, mostly come true. If you think you will be successful you most likely will be, because the things we think about the most, mostly come true. What I think about is a game changer.

Looking at the work that a young Artist shows me and I often think I want to see painting number 200, then we will see what they have in them after the have pushed through all the obstacles of painting. Always it’s the continuous stretching of the creative mind, never seeing one painting as the masterpiece, but the whole body of work as the masterpiece and constantly repeating the process of painting day after day. All Artists must get to that place of feeling empty having painted so many paintings and thinking that there is no more within them to give, this is the time to dig deep and push. If you can just push through the tired and paint on, that is where the real magic happens and so much can happen in a short period of time that maybe that breakthrough that you have been looking for we come. Paint and keep on painting and repeat the process tomorro w, push through the tired and you will be amazed at what you create.. .  

In the 1950’s Mark Rothko made change happen as did Jackson Pollock, they were trailblazers they had no map and no rules they just did it, brought change and they upset the steady rhythm of the Art world. Jackson Pollock, his vision was so challenging that his drip paintings changed painting as we know it, he took his abstract expressionist paintings to a place that no one had been before, as did Rothko. Pollock challenged what is Art, this should be goal of every Artist to walk where no one has walked before them. Rothko’s paintings were revolutionary he saw raw emotion in colour and painted his feelings, sadly to his detriment as deep depression swamped his life. Imagine people would weep in front of his monochromes, his Art moved people. I think the purity of his work should challenge those who paint abstract paintings to day, to see how his reductionist style changed everything, he saw with a new clarity of vision and original thought knowing what new Art should be. ...

  I know this might not be for all of you, because many people need rules in their art practice to go forward because that is how they were taught in school. You are not a camera either, but that was how you were taught to see to paint and draw, many believe they should follow the unwritten rules, but there are no rules. My daughter painted a painting at school and made the sky orange and the teacher said she was wrong to do that and fix it, because the sky is blue. My daughter said that her daddy paints the sky orange and he is right because he is an Artist, the teacher said nothing more. There are no rules my friends, be like a child and paint the sky orange if you want to. You don't have to ask permission first, give yourself permission and do it. The only thing you need to follow is your Muse. .

What you focus your thoughts on really does matter. If you focus on the negative then all you will see is the negative. From ancient text, “ As a person thinks in their heart so are they.” We mostly become what we mostly think about. What we focus on really matters. If you want to see the negative, you will. If to want to see the positive you will, it is all a matter of what you focus on and think about. What you focus on you feel. Be careful what you focus on. Do not presume the worst, focus on the positive. When the negative thoughts come stop them, focus on what is real, not on what is imagined. .

I was asked the question about getting the attention of people by doing work for free and getting great exposure. Now I need to say very clearly first of all, that if a company wants you to paint a painting or paintings for them to hang in their office for free, because it will give you great exposure, say no. I do not believe that you should have to give away work to get exposure, to dress up some office building. Business is business, if they want them, they should pay or lease them from you with contracts, because you cannot buy food with great exposure. If you are going to do work for free make sure you are getting something out of it, meeting new people, blessing a good collector, opportunity to connect with strangers. I also like Artists giving away a painting at an opening, like a lucky door prize, doesn’t have to be big, people love this sort of thing. Doing free stuff is necessary and important sometimes, but make sure that it has long term benefits for you, eve...

When storms are hitting just endure them, do not try to change anything, the storms will pass, endure them and see them off. The great lesson of hard times is survival, being there after the storm has passed. Its to late to fix the leaking roof in the middle of the storm, sit it out . Yes, there will be difficult times in your Art practice and during that time you will learn so much about yourself. Will you endure and survive, or will you give up and walk away? Now I believe this is a learned skill, because in the hard and difficult times the “thief ” is screaming at us to run away, get to a safe comfortable place, give up, it is the easiest thing to do and if the “thief ” wants that, then it is the wrong thing to do. Endure the hard times, survive, because I honestly believe that if you can survive the difficult times you will be successful. Much wisdom can be gained during the storms of life, leaning what skills you don't have and what you need to change in yo...

Today in this new times we live in we must approach social media like it is the front window of your gallery, so think about what you want people to see in your Gallery. All social media is a connection machine which allows us to reach out and touch others for free, so we need to use these different sites to our advantage. Your Gallery can show videos of you working and creating Art, today so many are doing the time lapse videos and they look great, my only caution is they need sound, because people want to know what you are doing and why, this builds relationships. You can show your paintings and tell the story of why you did it, what your inspiration was and allow people to become part of the process. Potential buyers want to be part of what you are doing, part of the romance of the Artist, allow people in and connect with them. There is no need to hard sell, build connections and relationships, then the sales will follow in time. There is no quick way to success, i...

It is better to plan your Art Career than leave it to chance. Chance is like the lottery, it might happen, but most likely it will not and if it does happen by chance, will you be able to keep the success? If you have not planned for that sudden success, most likely after a while you will go back to where you started. Success does not stay with the unprepared. When success happens by having a plan, then you will get to keep the success because you will have grown as a person and will be able to handle it. W rite out your goals, so you know where you are going and you will then know when you have arrive d . Artists need to be constantly preparing for their success.  

It is nice when people like our Art, so be grateful for those people even if it is only one or two. When you get to that place as an Artist where only the work is important and in itself is the only validation that you need, you will then find fulfilment in your Art. The two most important things you do as an Artist, is create and sell your your work. Your job is not to be working at pleasing everyone because that is impossible, a distraction and a lie of the “thief.” You must please yourself, give yourself permission, validate yourself and do your original work. Let our work define us, not the opinion of the “thief” or other people. You must come to the studio every day and do your work and build the discipline of c ontinuous improvement. .

A n Artist lives with the unknown every day, pushing Artistic boundaries and always wanting to get outside of their comfort zone. It is a daily struggle, because you know th at you are on the right path, especially when the thief in your mind says, “No, don’t do that you will be criticised and laughed at” you must reply to that voice, “Let’s go and do it and see what happens.” What an amazing journey we are blessed to be an Artist, being able to create every day . Artist be comfortable in your the quiet solitude with your muse and triumph in the every day struggle with the “thief.” Y ou are indeed fortunate to be an Artist, strive to be better every single day.