From my new website infiniteheart.com.au

Not everyone can be an artist or a ballet dancer or even an astronaut. We are all different. We all have a different core purpose. Some people can strongly feel this purpose and they act on it.

Their road is not necessarily easy but they know what they must do and they do it. They love what they do and they can’t be stopped.

Other people do not even believe in a core purpose, let alone pursue ‘their life’s work’. They do not even bother to look within to learn about themselves. That’s fine, it’s all a personal choice.

But sometimes, a fantasy can be mistaken for a goal. Sometimes you will bang your head against a wall and no matter how hard you try, you will not succeed.

Sometimes you have to give up and find a new dream.

Don’t believe people who tell you that you can do anything… you will probably notice that they are not living what they are talking about anyway. You can’t do anything because you are a limited being in a very limited body.

To be an artist you need to have a reason for your expression, a personal focus that causes you to express your unique style.

What do you want to say? What do you want to shout out to the world? What is important to you?

You need to know what you are going to say before you speak. You need to know your song before you sing. You need to know your goal before you begin your creative pursuit.
Work out what you want to express before you frustrate yourself with vague meanderings on your blank canvas.

Came across a few artists on a social site who think that the only real artists are those who have been formerly trained. It’s a very narrow and strange way of seeing art.

All Colleges, Universities, Institutions etc. are products of the system. They are corporate in their thinking and traditional in their training. They are extensions of the government and hence present careful, institutionalised attitudes. They are mechanical production lines that produce trained monkeys.

Some of these monkeys are able to break out of their training and become great artists, but most cling to the few rules they learned as they try to make it in the practical world of art.

Art is an expression of the character, the personality. How can anyone tell you what you are and how you should express it? How can people who are not successful artists teach you how to be a successful artist?

The system sucks and if you want to follow its foolish ways, then you will probably suck too!

Quietly being me

I have been a professional artist for over 30 years,for  most of those years business was good. I have sold thousands of seascape paintings and done thousands of portraits. At the moment the economy is changing, art is a luxury for many people. It is becoming more difficult to sell art in the same way that it has been sold for years.

You have to lower your prices. You have to be less precious about your work and you have to be prepared to give generous discounts. It’s quite humbling… for a while. Then you wake up and say, “Hey, stop making a big deal about a constantly changing world. There’s always change, so adapt and find new ways of selling and presenting your work. There’s always someone out there who is able to buy peace and beauty” (my speciality).

I am forever scanning for new ways of working, new ways of selling and new ways to market my art. After all, I am a creative artist so it should be just as natural to be a creative business person.(psst… wannna buy a painting…?)

I watched 2 friends wrestling at Tae Kwon Do the other night. We are not taught to wrestle, so when we are down on the ground, we tend to scramble and scratch around slipping from random grasps to unexpected twists and turns.

Watching, it became obvious that they were not going anywhere. They were spending a lot of energy but had no focus on a direction. As martial artists we are taught to fight on our feet, that’s where we should be if we want to be effective. In a wrestling situation, our aim should be to get out of it and stand up again.

How many times in life do you do the same thing?  You go round and round, fighting the same problems blindly pushing and shoving and going nowhere. This is not where you should be if you are going over and over the same old and not going anywhere. You need to get out of there, stand up and attack life from a new direction.

So if your art is stale, repetitive and not selling, change your situation. Stand up and work from where you are comfortable.

Get up and make a change

It’s not easy being an artist… especially if you are not a business person. In the last 2 years the economy has changed, money has shifted and corporations have openly taken over the world.

Business is different. Values are changing. Luxury items are lower on the list of priorities. Many older people, who, not long ago spent freely, are being much more careful.

So how do you survive if your income depends on the sale of art or other items that are now classed as unnecessary? Well you focus on your situation, decide where you need to be and do what you can do to get there.

You have to change, maybe drop your prices, change your target market, offer incentives, whatever. You have to be creative with your business as well as your art!

Nobody is going to feel sorry for you and carry you on to glory. If you are an artist, it is no good depending on a galleries to keep you going, they have the same problem that you have – a changing economy. You need to be innovative and find new ways of presenting and selling your art!

Another Good idea

I have a new website – pleasantplaces.com.au.

This is a new way of presenting a landscape (well it’s new to me at least!). Read the rest of this entry »

I am now officially clever

I got it! It didn’t take as long as I thought it would.

I am now a skyscape artist – have a look at my new website skyscapes.com.au. Read the rest of this entry »

I am still steadily working towards my goal of being a professional skyscape artist. Most mornings I work on some paintings – adjusting, refining or painting over previous works.

It is important not to give these early works much value, otherwise I could stop halfway up skyscape mountain, thinking that I have reached the summit. Read the rest of this entry »