Mark E Shellshear.

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. .