Mark E Shellshear.

When you see another Artist whose work is comparable to yours and you have been painting for a similar length of time but they are succeeding better than you are, you cannot be envious but you need to find out what they are doing. The first question to ask is, “ What are they doing better than I am doing?” “ What are they doing that I am not doing?” Don’t look for the obvious, because immediately our insecurities will go to their painting and usually that is not the answer, the answer will be behind the scenes. Are they doing videos and you are not? Do the have after sales service, do you? Do they story tell their Art, do you? Do they use affirmations and positive self talk? Do they have written down goals and they use visualization? There are so many other things that can cause someone to be more successful, look at other very successful Artists and ask yourself the question, “ What are they doing that I am not doing?” because I have learned this, success leaves a trail. If the A...

Most Artists never contact a customer after they sell a painting to them. Why is this? We don’t want to bother them? Or are we afraid they don’t like the painting now and will want their money back? Imagine if we contacted them and they are very happy with their painting and love having it hang on their wall. You could ask them to send you a photo graph of it on their wall and get them to pose in the photo and then you could post that on your page, another happy customer. You could tell them about your new work and ask them if they would like to see some photos. You would be building trust and relationship with them and that would grow into a friendship in the future. Contacting our former customers is always a good thing to do, it shows we care about them and their Art work more than they we re just another sale. Imagine they will most likely buy from you again as you treated them like a human being, showed respect and consideration for them. Follow up i...

Always be true to your Muse and follow it diligently, listen to it’s soft voice and be always determined to paint your own original Art work, producing work that is yours and defines you. You do not paint for the critics and the unappreciative crowd, you paint for those people who love your work. These are your true followers and this will take time to build as mostly they are strangers right now but as more and more people become your followers then yo ur career will begin to become established.

When the going gets a little hard always remember not to change your goals change your strategies. In the journey I have been on over a life time I know that every good idea might not work out, but it is trying and seeing if it will. If it doesn’t work out that is not the end, it is far better to get another good idea and implement that. Ideas can change but the goal will always be the same. Persistence isn’t using the same strategies and ideas over and over when they are obviously not working. Persistence is always going for that goal. Change your ideas and strategies but don’t change your goals.

With success if you understand how you did it then it can be repeated. It can be reviewed, refined and improved. Now when you sell a painting watch what you say to yourself, most say I got a sale or I sold my painting. Selling a painting is success and we must acknowledge it, say to yourself and others, “ I successfully sold my painting.” If you say it like this it is acknowledging the success and it is positive reinforcement to your self belief. We need to talk to ourselves like it is someone we love, encourage yourself, praise yourself, use positive words that builds self belief. If someone we know sells a painting we often say to them “ congratulations ” but we would never think of saying that to ourselves, yet we should say, “  Congratulations  Mark you successfully sold your painting, I am successful.” We can so quickly criticize ourselves and pull ourselves down and we need to change this and speak positive encouraging words to ourselves. Next time you sell a painting...

A lot of Artists unconsciously set glass ceilings in their lives, they limit their expectations and so achieve less. Something I have learned in life is that most times it’s not others who limit our success it is usually ourselves. Break your glass ceiling, dream bigger.

Artist you know what scares you the most about your Art practice and the thing you constantly put off, that is probably the key to your success. Often the thing we don't want to do, is most likely the thing we need to do, so don’t let the thief rob you of your success. If the thief turns up to stop you, just think to yourself, “ if the thief is trying to stop me and panic me, it must be the right thing to do,” so then just ahead and do it  anyway. Once you know it’s the thief and you do it anyway, it loses power in that area and it becomes easier and easier for you to do next time. Every time you go against the thief you take a little more power from it. Don’t let the thief stop you, panic the thief and do it and gain mastery over it in that area of your life. Tomorrow, do it again. .