Money and Fame May Not Be Enough

 Maybe it's because I've raised four kids. Maybe it's because I homeschooled them. I don't know, but what I do know is that when it comes to your children, your primary goal is that they turn out to be decent, kind, sympathetic, understanding people, and you hope that they'll be happy.

And then you look around you, and you see scores of famous, wealthy people, some of whom seem decent, kind, sympathetic, and understanding and many others who do not, and you think, money and fame must not be enough. And they're not.

We know that deep down because didn't all of our mothers tell us so? Yet, we persist in defining our success by our name (Do people know us by one like Shakespeare, Lincoln, Napoleon, Madonna, Renoir are?), our sales, or our bank account.

If we want to be successful oil painting artists or top watercolorists or stellar acrylic painters, then let's start with what people often pay attention to least when it comes to the idea of success in the fine art painting world: the quality of our art. Get good. Get really really good. Work hard, struggle through, yell with triumph over your latest oil painting, and then go kiss the dog. That's success.