Do you want to be a successful artist?  What does success mean to you? These are just two of the questions a coach might ask you?  Have you asked yourself these questions lately and what were the answers?

At the beginning of February I did a couple of posts on coaching and received a request for more on this topic.  So just to let you know,  this is a continuing topic I will be pursuing over time, as I believe it is critical to our success in any endeavour – no matter what our field is.  One thing creative people are often accused of is being insular hermits, stuck inside their studios.  Well If you want success as an artist its highly unlikely that it will find you there.

This morning I was listening to an interview with Michael Masterson, successful entrepreneur and founder of Agora Publishing. During this interview he touched on the subject of coaches and mentoring and I would like to share some of these insights with you.

He was saying that it is essential that we have a mentor and not only that, but we really need two different kinds of mentors or coaches.

Shadowed - by Judith White, a mentor of mine in my early days as an artist

Firstly we need a mentor who has been very successful in the field we are interested in, which might be a living artist who sells well.  You can get a certain amount of information from autobiographies as well, but this is not a coaching/mentoring relationship.  You need to think about whose success you would like to emulate?  To define this he recommends only choosing someone who has had repeat success e.g several sell out exhibitions.  In other words, they are not a one hit wonder.

This person you might only see or interact with once a month or so.  However what they posess are the insider secrets to success in your industry.  So if you are an artist, having an art gallery owner as this type of mentor would not work because they are only one part of your industry.  You would need to go to a successful artist and ask them to mentor you.  They can provide you with both artistic input and business insights as well.

My next post will outline the other kind of mentor you need to find.

Previous posts on this topic:

Mentors and Coaches for Artists

Art Mentors And Coaches – Part 2

Following on from Monday’s post, I just had to share Dessert with you.  What a treat.  Baked peaches filled with almond meal soaked in a liqueur, melted chocolate and coconut with a meringue on top, baked in the oven and served with a delicious Red Berry Sauce.

Stuffed Peaches

Again – what a delight to the eye. Well done Mim! And her number again in case you missed Monday’s post is Ph. 43852837

When it comes to cooking – some of us have it and some of us don’t.  And I think that one of the more talented races in this area are the Italians.  They just have a wonderful attitude to food.  Unlike many of us in countries like the US of A and Australia where I currently reside, they do not make food their enemy.

On Saturday I was invited out for dinner at a friend’s house .  She had organized a wonderful evening of Wine Women and Food.  Well what fun we had. Mim, our Italian chefess if there is such a word, runs ‘a Cooking For Beginners’ course – which takes place in your own home.   Her recipes were simple and so tasty.  Mim has spent her life time cooking and I plan to do a post on her soon so do come back to find out more about her.

I am a vegetarian, and she even managed to come up with some wonderful tasty treats for me too!

For an entree she treated us to Zucchini Cakes on a bed of rocket with shaved Parmesan and so easy to make!

Unfortunately by the time I’d thought to do a blog post about it – well I’d eaten them!

However the brain must have still been partly engaged because here is a photo of the main course….

Eggplant Delicious

How beautifully presented is that? The colour, the textures – not to mention the tastes – Wonderful!

I have taken the liberty of changing the name of her dish from Eggplant Bake to Eggplant Delicious – because it truly was.and the rice you see there – what a wonderful combination of flavours;curry,lemon rind, macadamia nuts to name a few.

If you live on the Central Coast and want to have a wonderful evening with your girlfriends – give MIM a call – Ph. 43852837

Doors in San Marco Piazza

Continuing on from Monday’s post here are some amazing doors I have come across.  Europe is the place for magnificent doors as you can see from these photos taken in Venice.

I must apologize to those of you who may have dropped by earlier today to find no pictures and about 2 lines here.  This is a landmark event – the first time I failed to post properly since I began the blog a year ago.  So there goes my untarnished record – never to be spotless again …..Ah well – sometimes life just catches up on you.

Doorway at Versailles

And back to Venice again.  This is one of my favourites and for all you Tomb Raider fans out there – you will recognize this one!

Venetian doorway