Mark E Shellshear.

How can I improve my performance in my Art and my life? This is something I think about all the time, how do I improve? What book should I read? What podcast should I listen to? What seminar should I attend? Always be searching for improvement. If we only see a little improvement each day and that will lead to big improvement in time. Small improvements repeated each day will change your life.

Having great Artistic talent would a blessing beyond imagination, but if there was lack of character, no work ethic, no desire to be a better person, no love for fellow man, or to share with others, then it would be wasted. Better to have little talent with good character, good work ethic, care for others less fortunate and love towards all. Striving always to improve yourself and make your world better. By doing this you will make a difference with your Art and your life. You are the key to your success.

Walk away from the loud, negative and critical people as they will rob you of your creativity and lead you to a dark place. Artist always be positive and encouraging others, be a ladder so that people can climb back to a positive place through your Art and your words. Help them to get the skills to improve, both their Art work and themselves. Don’t criticise, but teach, advise and direct in a loving caring way. Teach as you would like to be taught. Help as you would like to be helped. Direct as you would like to be directed. See if we always treat others how we want to be treated we will change our world. Walk in the sunshine of your smile and you will effect those around you in a positive uplifting way. Artist it is not just about creating beautiful paintings, but also about creating a beautiful life in which you live. Dreams are your promised land before actions turn them into reality and you live them.

. I talked on the video about criticism and I said criticism was destructive and futile because it will not change something for the better, but it will destroy. Criticism leaves the person being criticized feeling bad, down and will arouse resentment and finally anger and sometimes retaliation. I do not believe even constructive criticism is valid, take away the constructive and what do you have left? So how did I look at my painting and evaluate them without being critical? I learned very early in my Art career that I did not have to criticize my own work as there were plenty of volunteers out there, more than willing to tear my work apart. But when evaluating my work, how can I do that without being self critical and thereby self destructive? If I did not think a painting was good enough, my attitude was to say, I need to do that again, no criticism, just do it again. Also every afternoon after I would finish painting I would sit with the new work and stare at it and let it sho...

The problem Artists face in the Art market is that once the market discovers their great Art and it sells well, they will try and turn it into factory Art because it offers the Artist what they do not have fame and fortune, to produce similar paintings. The market is selling paintings that may start off as original and organic, but the process of commerce turns these paintings into good sellers and then the Art market wants to mass produce them so they get more sales, which is what they do, sell paintings. Now there are some painters who are happy to do this and if that is what they want fine, but for others this is not a suitable career move, to become a factory painter. So what do we do to counter this problem from happening to us. We need to be our brand not just our Art. We need to always be selling ourselves as well as a painting. I hope you can understand subtlety here. The old way of selling Art was to put the painting in the Gallery and the Gallery sold it and...

The problem with the Art market is that once it discovers great Art it turns it into factory Art because it offers the Artist what they do not have fame and fortune, to produce similar works. This is a very difficult time for many Artists, they can produce similar paintings but the same and earn a good living, ever doing the same painting, variations of a theme and the fear of changing, now that I am well known and earning a good living, stops  them from moving forward and doing new creative original work. The problem really compounds if they decide to do new work and it does not sell, immediately they will go back to the tried and true sellers, never to go forward again. So they become a factory, with a production line and the works continue, small differences but the same. Perfecting the perfect, small changes and beautiful work but factory work and slowly becomes paint by numbers. It slowly looses it originality and becomes their trade mark paintings and they all look the sa...

There is no good or bad Art. There is Art produced by Artists that is original and organically theirs, that no one else created, it is theirs. Then there are painters who produce factory paintings. These paintings are not original or organically produced by the painter, they are copies and reproductions of original Art, but these are not Art any more, they are paint by numbers. The same piece painted over and over again with minor variations. They may be extremely well crafted, perfect draughtsmanship, perfectly balanced, they are just paintings, they are not Art. There may be many Artists that start out painting original and organic paintings but the pressure of fame and fortune and of course the Art Market Place pushes them to become factory workers, producing the same paintings in variations over and over again, because that is what the Art market wants, that same popular painting. Being original and staying original under the pressure of fame and fortune is difficult...