Mark E Shellshear.

Reasons why paintings are not finished. To tired. To restless. No inspiration, certainly no perspiration. Needed to get away with friends, down time. Needed to recharge the batteries. Had to chill out in front of tv. No where to paint. Studio is to small. Excuses, excuses, excuses. You can fail one excuse at a time. Its not hard to do, just find an excuse not to do it. Or you can turn all these excuses around and paint. No excuses. If you say you will do it, then do it. If you say you will be somewhere at a certain time, then be there at that time, not earlier or later, be on time. If you say you will meet a deadline, then do it. Excuses say more about you the Artist, than the missed opportunity. Because every excuse to not paint is a missed opportunity.

The new marketing on the internet is the Artist connecting to people, then those people talking and sharing what they have heard about the Artist with others, through this connection we are building relationships and turning them into friendships. The same business principles still apply on the internet, supply and demand, but the selling process is totally changing. We are not selling to everyone but to those who want to become part of our group, those who want to know us and connect with us. Quality, value and honesty are the new social truth, if these values are found in your work and you persist for a period of time, people will trust you and talk about you and buy your Art from you, but it will take time and patience. People need to know that you love your work, if you want them to love it as well and it is through that trust and relationship that the sale of our specialty items, paintings comes from. Not everybody will like your paintings or buy them, so concentrate your ...

The game has changed for us all, Artists today are facing a new Art Business model. In the years past the Art Business was very much controlled by the Gatekeepers, the major galleries, Auction houses and collectors and dealers. These people made Artists famous and it was a very elite crowd, they did not allow many to enter into the club. Since the early 2000's this has changed completely and the old model is broken, yes these groups are still out there but their influence has shrunk because of the internet and it has allowed the Artist like never before to take control of their careers and build them as they want to, ignoring the old model. This has been hard for many Artists to come to grips with as the old way was how it was always been done, now we have a time in history were there is no gatekeeper and you can take complete responsibility for your Art Business. In the old model we had to go to the newspapers and magazines to get our Art published, we had to try and ge...

A message to my older Artists friends and especially one who is struggling in this “new normal” we have all woken up in and to any other Artists friends who are struggling a little in the Art life. I agree that the Art s ales model that we had years ago is now broken and the old industry of the 1990's and the early 2000's is on life support to stay alive. The Art Business as we knew it, is broken for us. Getting o ld has not been kind to any of us and I discovered a couple of years before I turned 60 that I was unfashionable and unwanted. I had two choices, die of boredom and bitterness or reinvent myself. I am now well into my 60's and I have changed my life completely, studied so hard about the "new normal" and made myself learn all I could about the internet and selling, how to blog and do videos and then just did it . I decided I had so much experience that I could share and care for others going through what I have been through and so ...

How do others see us? How do you see yourself? What is your self image like? Do you continually work on being the best person and the best Artist you can be? Why do that when ok will do? Because ok is mediocre, is average, is boring, the usual, ordinary, every day the same, it is just ok. If you really want to contribute to your family, friends, town, city, country through your Art, then ok will not do that. For most Artists ok is, ok. But if you want to change your world then ok, is not good enough. To change your world you will need to become extraordinary. Extraordinary, is going beyond what is the usual, the regular, or customary, to be exceptional to a very marked degree . Now the interesting thing about being extraordinary is that you may not start out in front of the crowd but each day by your diligent work practice and positive attitude you will begin to step further and further out in front of the crowd . To be extraordinary, is a daily im...

It is much better to live on the Art fringes than to be in the crowd running with everyone else. If you are in the crowd there will be pressure on you to conform to the group and its vision. We do this, because this is what people like us do. The unspoken pressure to conform is always present within a group of Artists. People like us, like people like us. If you want to be different, be innovative, push the artistic boundaries and live on the edge, then running with the crowd is not for you. Because you will find that the group will push back intentionally or unintentionally, its just the conforming nature of what a group does, to be the same and stay the same. Living in the Art fringes, you will need a compass not a map, because you must find your own way, there are no trails to follow, no directions given, you must find your own new original way, your way.                               ...

How Artists think about themselves is so very important, yet so often we just allow any thoughts to flow through our head, unchallenged and unhindered. As Artists often the difference between success and failure is the way we think about a situation and what we tell ourselves with our inner voice. One person says, “ I knew this would happen at this show, I know I will not sell.” Another person facing the exact same situation says, “ What a great opportunity, I will sell here.” Same situation, but seen through different eyes and different thinking. How you think is everything. We are all the center of our own universe, so how we talk to ourselves can define the reality that we live in. We can be negative and always finding fault with everything and everyone? Or we can be positive and always looking for the positive in everything and everyone? Again the same situation, different people, different thinking. How we perceive things internally becomes our truth, even if it...