How to be a professionally successful artist? 

Abir Pothi founder Ruby Jagrut writes

In today’s challenging time, when you decide to be an artist, I will surely congratulate you. We know what it is to be an artist—experiencing liberation and being able to see, express, and share one’s ideas through visual representation.

To be an artist, you must choose first—choose to marry your individuality, own it, and put it out there for the world to see.

But how do you become a professionally successful artist? What are the habits of highly successful artists?

I can share a few things I learnt from different master doers and my guru Toofan Rafai. My guru, friend, and mentor used to say, “Gili Mitti bano”—be like clay. Isn’t it a very deep and philosophical metaphor?

If I have to say the first thing: getting into a good art school is wonderful. Nothing like it. Your skill set is your tool. That’s your language. And your language is your medium.

Eventually it will become a bridge between your viewer and you. But what if you can’t get into an art college, and later in life you decide to paint or carve wood and become a professional artist? Ravindranath Tagore started painting at a very late age.

You have to be a student and be ready to take a deep dive into this journey.

If you are self-taught, you have to be like a sponge—eager to absorb. Visit every possible museum and art gallery. Just be a witness to the magnificent art already made by maestros and contemporary artists.

Try to look beyond the lines—how they flow from one corner to another. The journey of that line, that splash of colour. Try to decipher and decode the work. Hmm… might sound a bit difficult, but honestly, when you stop seeing and start looking, the work unfolds automatically. Like a beautiful story—you see the beginning, you see the struggle, and then you see how the artist triumphed. The first fundamental rule of being an artist is to seek.

The next, maybe the most important thing, is finding your voice—the medium where you feel at ease. A safe space where you can be vulnerable and honest. It can be any material, any medium. You have to develop your alphabet, your vocabulary, which helps you unfold what lies in your subconscious.

It’s like school—at first you struggle to form even a sentence, but as you keep training, it gets easier with each work, each day. You have to keep training your eyes to look, and your hands to paint, draw, carve. You have to keep pushing.

Third, and extremely important: find your tribe. The biggest disadvantage for self-taught artists is not having a peer group. Sometimes you find a mentor, but finding peers is more difficult. A self-taught artist has to work very hard to earn respect from peers. Often their art journey is seen as a second option or a hobby.

But peers play a huge role in an artist’s life. They can be critical, but they also give different insights. Working in a studio with similar age groups helps you be more disciplined. It adds intensity and dedication. As a starter, it is important that you show up every day and spend enough time with your work.

Being an artist is a lonely profession, but being in an environment where art is created and discussed is a very desirable place for any artist.

Once you find your voice and your tribe, you must develop self-belief. Self-belief is a fearless state of being you. Be ready to fail and own your failures. It comes from being absorbed in your art practice.

When you keep working and sharing your work, you will see varied reactions. These reactions build you brick by brick. Be ready for critical feedback too—but you will always find a few who find your work engaging. Take clues from positive responses and explore them. Critical comments can be depressing sometimes, but remember—they speak because you are out there, working. Pick what suits you and leave behind what weighs you down.

Respect your work. Store it carefully. Learn to articulate and share the story in your artist statement. Giving a title is also a good practice—it provides the viewer a hook or starting point. Social media is the reality of today’s time—can’t be consumed, but can’t be ignored. Be part of the community. Be aware of what is happening in the world.

Learn to sell—share your work with art galleries. Reach out to online platforms. Plan your shows in advance, give yourself deadlines. Keep reaching out to peer groups and try to participate in as many group shows as you can. Be aware of local competitions. Keep sharing your work with different audiences. There is huge learning just by sharing work.

Like learning to look, you also have to develop ears—to listen to what is said and not said. Learn through reactions, and learn to hear them dispassionately.

The next stage: treat it like a job. Like a job, you will have promotions, appraisals, and sometimes disappointing days. You have to be ready for all kinds of days. You can’t be touchy about it. Learn to balance—social media, tools, grants, important shows, peers’ works, and introspection of what you can do more and better.

Plan shows, invest time and energy in reinventing yourself, and don’t get into the comfort zone of medium or subject. Save some money while you are doing well. Before you let go of one subject and move to another, take time off—look at your works from a distance.

Remember, a woodcutter cuts wood by cutting and not cutting—he waits for gravity to do its part. As you evolve, your art should evolve too. It can only happen when you try to see colours in beautiful melody. Exposure to different art forms builds a robust base. It activates different parts of the brain. Music, theatre, literature—these train your mind to think differently.

It is important for an artist to be available for that space where one can participate with child-like curiosity. The day you lose that curiosity, you stop growing and exploring.

I would like to share one of my favourite and very inspiring Zen Story here – 

Master: “Tell me, what if my hand remains open and does not move at all? I have the most beautiful and strong hand, but it cannot fold into a fist. What would you say?”

Disciple: “Master, that is a kind of deformity.”

Master: “Hmm. Now tell me—what if I close my hand into a tight fist, and no one can open it? Is that fist desirable? Would you like to have such a hand?”

Disciple: “No, Master. That too is another kind of deformity.”

Master: “Exactly. The function of the hand is to move, to have flexibility, to do as desired. Neither a permanently open hand nor a tightly closed fist is desirable. You must be flexible and supple—like Gili Mitti. That is the true nature of being an artist.”