Mark E Shellshear.

We need to make work that matters for the people who care about our Art. It is easy to be average it takes little effort and low risk, but it will always be average work. To make work that matters takes risk and emotional energy and we invest something in it that average doesn’t have, the desire for constant improvement. Average does not have to improve, it’s just average and that is easy to do and nobody cares. Consistent improvement can be measured, we will see the improvement in our work, because it matters to you the creator and to the people who care about your Art. It always matters.

Most of the important things you will have to do to be a successful Artist are not things you will feel like doing, but that does not matter you will still have to do them. The difference between highly successful people is that they know that hard things have to be done and they just do them, they do not debate and negotiate with themselves and talk themselves out of it because they do not feel like it, they do it. The difference is taking action and doing it quickly so you don’t talk yourself out of it. So next time you know you should do something but don’t feel like doing it, act and do it, that is what successful people do.

The imagination drives our practice and helps us to produce the work that defines us as Artists. We take what does not exist, except in our imagination and dreams and we turn it into a beautiful Art work. As Artists we go to work on an idea and turn it into reality. We breath life into ideas and produce exceptional Art. We imagine it and it is. We dream it and it becomes reality.

Now not everyone will like us or our Art, but we must do all we can to endear ourselves to others. Create wonderful original Art and work on the better you, a better smile, on your pleasing personality and always be as friendly as you can, get rid of bad habits like arguing and criticism and learn to see the best in every situation. It may not work out exactly as you want all the time but as long as you have always given it your best effort, that’s enough. .

Artists work alone most of the time, so learn to motivate yourself. Motivation is internal and the lesson to learn about self motivation is it’s not about how you feel, feelings are fickle, motivation is about how you speak to yourself. Negativity starts internally and most because they don’t use positive self talk, affirmations and then wonder why negativity fills their mind. Positive healthy statements like, I am a good Artist, I am a selling Artist, I am a hard working Artist, this constant repetition gets me to a positive state of mind and I will motivate myself, because I will act on my positive self talk and my reality will be my statements. Change your self talk and you will change you.

Most people are starved of appreciation and understanding, we all want someone to listen to us, to notice us and tell us we are doing well. The best way to get people to cooperate with us is not to point out their faults and criticise them, but to appreciate them and encourage them. It takes no talent to find faults, it takes a rare person to take the time to find something to praise. Always follow the golden rule, treat others the way you want to be treated. .

The problem with being lost in the crowd is you do not stand out, and that makes you invisible. You would be far better to do different and original work and race ahead where no one else sees a path and deliberately hold back from going where the crowd wants to go. Conforming to crowd think and being invisible is fine if that is what you want for your career, but it’s very hard for an invisible Artist to get the public's attention. W ith our Art business we need to be original, innovating and marketing our Art works and bringing change It is far better to stand out and get the attention of strangers, than to be invisible, lost in the crowd. .

Selling is a bad word to most and we don’t want to be seen like the used car salesman, yet most of them are not good salespeople because of pushy tactics. We don’t like to be sold to, but we like to buy. How do we trick our brains? Don’t talk about selling, lose that word. Talk about meeting people and making new friends How can I do that, make new friends? You need to smile a lot, smiles attract people. You need to be friendly, people like friendly people. You need to tell them your Art story, people love to know about the Artist life. And you need to tell yourself a new story, that you like meeting new people and making new friends.

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. If you work on fixing all your own faults, you will change your world. The greatest key to your success is within you. No body can motivate you to do it, no one can force you to do it, you have to take personal responsibility and make a quality decision to change, and then act on that decision. Change you and you change your world.

They have been painting for a number of years and just cannot make it. A few sales come but not regularly selling and it does become very difficult I know. I have spoken with a lot of Artists at this stage and I think they didn’t just give up on Art, they gave up on themselves. Artist you have to sell your work, so learn yo sell, there are so many sales courses on the internet for free. You cannot escape this, learn how to do it.

Every Artist should work hard on their personality to become a better person and improve their lives. The thief does not want you to do anything that would bring 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. We all need 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 who you are as 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. .

The soil in the garden does not care what you plant in it, because it’s job is to cause it to grow and bring a harvest, not judge it good or bad. The mind like the garden will return to you what you plant in it and it doesn’t care what you plant in it, it will grow it and bring a harvest. What you plant, you get a harvest of. The bible says, “As a person sows, so shall they reap.” My question is always the same, what if this statement is right? Then we need to be wise what we plant, because we will get it back, not the one seed we planted, but a harvest of what we planted. .

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 have the attitude that you are not for everyone, but you are for those who like you. 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, move on. 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. Stay in front of your audience and look to keep building that audience with great Art, compelling stories, short concise videos so you get name and face recognition and a very friendly personality. .

Turning up everyday to create Art is an attitude as well as an action, it takes patience and determination and a belief in yourself, your imagination, your Muse. Turn up everyday and do what needs to be done and out of this discipline of work comes the miracle. People want the miracle without the hard work and often the hardest work is just turning up everyday and painting, doing so even when you don’t feel like it. Be patient and determined to never give up, on the good days work hard on your art, on the hard days work hard on yourself and always listen to your imagination.

W hat a great idea I can see it in my minds eye, what are my options? Act or procrastinate. Act on it while the emotion is hot. You always have to take action. Ideas are useless without action to back them up and turn the ideas into reality. Do it or loose it.

A good Artist may have similar Art work to a great Artist, so where is the difference in value from good to great? The great Artist reaches out, they think about being a customer and they want to understand what their customer wants. They care about the customer and engage with them, they are very friendly and want to talk to them, they want to tell them about their Art and why they painted it and they are interested in what their customer has to say, they bring value to the experience. They remember customers names and always follow up sales with newsletters, emails and phone calls, they keep the engagement going forward building a relationship with the customer. They are not just better than a good Artist they are playing a totally different game. Inspire us, be a great Artist.

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 worth little, 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. As you become more valuable to the Art market, through face and name recognition, so your paintings rise in price and become more valuable. Work on your Art business, work on your Art, work hard on being the best version of you that you can be and bring value to the Art market. .

You must build trust before you need it, it’s no good building trust right when you want a sale, it’s just to late. The best way to sell your Art is to be patient and build trust with the people who follow you through consistency, being where you said you would be, when you said you would be there. Do th is and you will build a relationship with your followers and that in turn will build trust and that in time will become sales. You must build trust before you need it. .

Life must be so d isappointing to those who always see the negative things of life , yet with just a slight adjustment to their thinking they could make a change for the better. To be positive is an internal decision that goes against what the fear and your internal critic want s , but you must be the one to change you, it’s called self help. I believe we can change our world, if we change. I know the world will never be perfect but it can be better, if we get better. Lets change our world for the better by changing ourselves for the better .

Success produces plateaus. Be careful of being comfortable and as soon as you are feeling comfortable and satisfied, look for another mountain to climb. Feeling uncomfortable and doing new challenging Art projects, brings change.

In our industry change is happening so fast, galleries are becoming fewer and fewer and now we have big star artists who have never shown their work in a gallery, but sell very well through the internet getting known through videos. The gallery system of yesterday was just like the music industry a well greased system that minted money, but the question is; why did they deserve to last forever? They didn’t. Continual change or disappear.

What concerns me about art workshops and the teaching of art today is that they have industrialised the process, this is how you paint, copy what I do. We produce artists who can paint exactly like their teacher and they are praised and encouraged to do it? Real art teaching involves teaching students how to see with their imagination, how to paint from the heart and to be passionate about what they have created, not how to conform to a process the ultimately leads to apathy. Teach us to have original thoughts, help us to see, encourage us to try again, praise us for each step forward in our artistic journey but make it our original journey and not to become like you. Original art cannot be taught, it is from the imagination and must be encouraged and enticed to come out into the sunlight.

What you have to do is decide that you will commit to doing a painting every day for a month in this new style in small format, do not do the normal size painting you do. Everyday you do the new piece and when you are finished you cannot judge it because you won’t like it and the reason for that is it’s different from what you usually do, so just put it in a box and leave it. Do these new paintings for a month, now you will have thirty paintings, lay them out on the floor and see what you think of them now and you may find your original dislike for them has turned into, they are not bad. Tastes are acquired over time, so the more you practice doing the new paintings and not judging them until after a month you will find your attitude to them will have changed. .

Someone has an original thought and they get shouted down and then they find it is easier to be average and invisible. They are told, this is how it’s done and this is how we do it. Yet I know that there are many passionate Artists trying to break out of so many tired, disillusioned and fearful adults. If someone shows you the Artist there attempt at making Art, do not find fault with it or tell them how they should do it, encourage, inspire, nurture and lead them, remember there is a passionate fearful Artist trying to break out. .

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, it’s just a skill you can learn. Improve me, improve my Art.

The major reason why people give up in the Arts, is fear. Fear of the fear of failing. The fear of the fear of success. It is never the hard work or the long hours it is always fear. Fear of what loved ones will say, of what friends will say or even what the public might say. It is easier to give up and blame, the Art market, Art Galleries and everyone in between for our work not selling. If we can find an excuse that is acceptable to the story we are telling ourselves, then we can quit, the fear will now be quiet, we will feel comfortable and safe and we will justify our new position by saying we tried hard. We will say that the market was not ready for our art or just plain find fault with everything to do with the Art market and the people who buy paintings. You cannot change them, but you can change you. We must confront the fear head on and do what it’s telling us not to do . .

There are many things that when we first do them for the first time they feel very unfamiliar and uncomfortable but we need to get used to doing them. Getting used to being comfortable, used to familiar and being relaxed causes us to become complacent and lose our creative drive. Being willing to do what makes you feel uncomfortable will push you out in front of the crowd. The crowd is comfortable, familiar and group association, but if you want to get out in front of the crowd into clean air, then you will have to do things that will make you feel uncomfortable. You are different. You are not a clone. You are not like anyone else and you can accomplish more than you think you can. You are more creative than you think you are. You are much smarter than you give yourself credit for. It is limiting beliefs that stop us and as soon as we feel uncomfortable we get scared and rush back to familiar. It may feel uncomfortable at first but imagine what you will accomp...

It is so easy to be our own worst critic and that is not what we want or will give us good future outcomes. We want to be positive with ourselves and see the best in what we are doing in both our thoughts, words and actions. Do not criticise yourself or your Art, always encourage yourself, talk positively to yourself, build your self esteem. Positive self talk builds self confidence and a strong positive outlook. Positive thoughts produce positive words and positive actions which have positive future outcomes. .

The copier, also a thief will always be long behind the original creative Artist because they have no original ideas and must wait for others to create original work before they can steal it. Ignore these people because the art public are only fooled for so long. Instead of being offended by them, dismiss them and use their lack of creativity to push you to experiment and innovate and challenge others to be better. People can steal your ideas and copy your work but they cannot steal your passion or your original creative drive because you are lead by your Muse. Your Muse is yours alone.

  The best thing about a crowded Art market is that most Artists are trying to fit in and are lost in the crowd, they don’t want to rock the boat, they are shy and timid. If you try to fit into what the Art market wants and what Art group says, you will be invisible and just part of the crowd. So stand out and do what will get you attention, make videos that will get name and face recognition. Strangers are the ones who will buy your Art, but if they cannot find you then you cannot sell your Art to them, so get the attention of strangers because they are the key to your Artistic success. You have to decide, you can fit in or you stand out and create ways to get attention. One is very easy to do, the other takes hard work and determ...

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 Art videos and writing blogs about Art is not hard work. They are emotional work and can be draining. Making Art 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 making Art and having to sell it can be heart breaking but it also can change your life dramatically in a positive life changing way. Make your wonderful Art and embrace your emotional work as a marvellous opportunity to change your life and be the success who dream of being. .

As I have said on many occasions the two most important things Artists must do is create great Art and then sell it. The first for most is the easy part as selling for most people is a big hurdle because that means you will have to talk to strangers and it is scary. It is not scary to talk to nice people and most people are nice and friendly, the problem is in our minds before we ever get in front of people we have created this monster in our minds and it stops us from talking to people. Don’t settle for being controlled by fear. Tell yourself a new story, that you can overcome fear, talk to strangers and enjoying talking to strangers and making new friends. It may feel uncomfortable at first but imagine what you will accomplish.

People who are obsessed with what they are doing, that’s what makes the difference and most are not obsessed with their business, therefore they makes excuses for why they are not very successful. You must be obsessed with what you are doing and love doing it, it’s what you think about all the time. Some very wealthy men I know are obsessed with making money, it’s all they think about, read about, all they plan about and they act on those plans and we wondered how they got so successful? Yes it’s consistency, it’s perseverance, it’s determination and it’s when you close your eyes it’s what you see in your minds eye, in your imagination, it’s what you think about and dream about all the time, you live your obsession. Most peoples heads are not in their business and they wonder why good things are not happening. Be obsessed with what you do and you will be amazed at what you can achieve in your Art business and everyone will say you are lucky and in the right place. .

You may want to be the most famous Artist in the world and then what? Someone is coming who will be more famous. These are not a good game to play because they are finite games, a beginning and an end and a winner. Football and golf are finite games, a beginning and an end and also there is a winner. These games are not good games, if you want to keep playing. We need to concentrate on the infinite game where we are always playing. So we would be best to focus on the pursuit of excellence in our Art business because that is life long continual improvement, a game you can play forever.

  To often Artists quit when times get hard. It can all go wrong, we have all been there, sales can be slow or non-existent, 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. .

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, as you get name and face recognition, 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 their paintings and building a very strong after sales service in their Art business. That is what will make you valuable to the market place. As you become more valuable to the Art market so your paintings rise in price and become more valuable. Work on your Art business, work on your Art, work hard on being the best version of you that you can be and bring...