Where do I go from here?! Please help a very frustrated artist!

Well a lot of questions in there, not sure I could answer all of them. Having had a quick look at your gallery there are some good paintings in there. I tend to paint whatever my mood takes, my preference is painting old vehicles , boats etc, but I do like landscape . I don’t stick to one thing and find that if I do a landscape , I want to do something different. Inspiration comes from reading, photos, even comments made by someone triggers a thought that can lead to a painting. Style is something that develops as you go along, and is best left to develop not go chasing around looking for one. What makes your painting different and unique is how you apply the paint and things like colours, even the pressure you use to put the paint on the paper or canvas this takes time and practice , plus many I’m not  to happy with paintings. I’m stopping there,  if I don’t I will go on for ever. Just enjoy what you do.

Agree with Paul about not chasing around for a style - it's just the wrong way around: style is something that develops, it can't be forced and it certainly can't be pre-determined.   Making a living as an artist is difficult, and it will probably involve you in painting a number of things that actually, you don't necessarily want to paint all that much.  You might also have to teach, although this is obviously not easy right now.  For myself, I would paint what I'm asked to paint (which isn't happening very often at the moment!) in the medium in which I'm asked to paint it.  If you want to be a professional at this game, you have to do that - certainly to start with.  That means people's dogs, cats, favourite car, children, any blessed thing.... now, I don't do any of that any more!  But that's because I'm more or less retired and don't need to; and I've never depended on painting as my sole way of making a living, either, precisely because I DON'T want to be told what to paint (happily, I don't at all mind painting dogs and cats, though: I've done a bit of that... in fact, the only thing I'd flat-out refuse to paint is someone's pet tarantula, because I can't stand being within 500 feet of the things: they run .... I don't....) It's not entirely clear to me if you're seriously trying to make a living, or seriously need to, from art.  You say you've recently become a full-time artist, but here you are, asking about opportunities for showing your work..... since you ask, the best way is probably to find a gallery to show your stuff, and certainly to take any opportunity to hold an exhibition that arises.  But if you WERE a full-time artist, you'd know that, and you'd be doing it.  What you really seem to have decided is that this is what you most want to do, and don't want to do anything else.   What I think you might have done is decide you want to be a full-time artist, but have yet to build a customer-base, don't know what customers or galleries might want, and are casting around for subjects because you don't yet know what sells.  Is that too big an assumption on my part, or about right?  I can tell you how to get better as an artist, if you need to - paint: doesn't matter what, just paint, and even more importantly, draw.  Look at what other artists are doing - read artist bios - get out of the house with sketch-book and camera, make yourself a project to follow, which could be just about anything.  Forget about "style" - don't even think about it. If you want to become a successful professional artist, though - that's not the same thing.  The steps to be taken to get there are very similar, but you will only be successful when people have decided what you DO, and that they like it, want it, and will pay for it.  Do not take this the wrong way, but I think there's no point in giving weak advice - you're not thinking like a professional at the moment; you're getting yourself into a frazzle about what you need to do to become one.   Do more work, speak to galleries, create a demand - if you're a professional, you will fulfil that demand; if you have the enormous luxury of independent means, well, you STILL might create that demand, but the pressures on you to meet it will be so much less.  

Hello Heidi, I'm not a professional artist, but I did take the plunge nearly two years ago and quit the '9 to 5' life. I started painting 10 years ago, and gradually over the years have become more confident that I can paint something that someone would actually pay money for...  I now make a part-time living from my art, and the other 'part' from gardening. I enjoy both! And whilst I'm not raking in loads of cash, I couldn't be happier. (I could be richer if I worked much harder, I guess!) Most of my commissions come by word of mouth (mostly pet portraits), and I also paint other things (things that I like). Over the years prior to quitting my job, I had built up a little bit of a following, so that helped with making the decision.  I have pictures hanging in my local pub, which has been a great outlet for the past 2 years, and have more recently branched out into a local gallery / shop.  I've not done lots of exhibitions, but am a member of a group of ten artists that hold an annual charity art exhibition, which has always been a success (sadly our show had to be cancelled this year, but we're attempting an online one!) You haven't mentioned in your post, whether you have sold your work in the past, - if you have, were they all similar styles /medium / subject matter, or all different? If I were you I would paint whatever you feel like painting right now, rather than what you think people will want to buy...  My husband keeps telling me to become more 'commercial', but I don't want to go that way... I don't want to paint (for example) a pretty floral scene, if I don't enjoy painting pretty floral scenes (and I don't). So I paint whatever I want, and if someone likes it enough to buy it... that's fantastic. 

Helen said.."if someone likes it enough to buy it... that's fantastic". That surely sums it up. although I'm not a selling artist. " Van Gogh swapped his some of his paintings for a meal or a glass of wine (maybe Absynthe).  The difference from then to the crazy commercial money hoarding now isn't in the paintings, apart from ageing, they stay the same. Only the values change and they are nothing to do with the artists. I think this proves the fickleness of folk and that there are no set rules. Give it your best shot and the results will tell you. Good luck with it.