The Mechanics of Mastery

by Evan Yeh

Navigation Menu:
Step 1: Confidence with the Brush
Step 2: Master the Moisture
Step 3: Loading and Blending the Brush
Step 4: Placing Strokes in Composition
Step 5: Following the Path to a Finished Composition
Step 6: Wet Mounting and Framing
Step 7: Showing and Selling

Over the Holidays, we spent some time thinking about the set of skills that a master Chinese Brush Painter possesses and how we might help our extended OAS Family identify and develop those skills. Of course, whenever one embarks on any journey towards mastery, it helps to be aware of what all mastery-development processes have in common. Whether it be playing a sport, or cooking, or in our case, Chinese Brush Painting, an effective journey towards mastery can be summarized by the following general steps.

Step A: Decide that one will become a master.

Step B: Begin to develop and demonstrate the skills that a master possesses.
Step C: Maintain a positive, joyful attitude even when faced with difficulty or obstacles.
Step D: Create using developed mastery skills.
Step E: Evaluate the output of the creative process, appreciating the things that went well and identifying what you would like to change.

Repeat Steps B-E.
As we get into the more specific process of mastery when it comes to Chinese Brush Painting, it will be helpful to keep this more general process in mind. With that in mind, we will examine the 7 Chinese Brush Painting Mastery Steps:

Step 1: Confidence with the Brush

The evaluation of art is entirely subjective. It is not like sports or mathematics or other hard sciences where objective measurements can be taken to evaluate observations. One thing is universal amongst impactful art: confidence. Even a layperson can immediately sense if art was done confidently. If this sense is present, the artist effectively creates an impact with their art.

The nature of the brushes, technique, ink and paper in Chinese Brush Painting make the confidence of the artist completely transparent. Initially, when working with a brush, building confidence should be the goal. Paint decisively, using your whole body to move the brush. Think of the brush as an extension of your hand which is an extension of your arm which is an extension of your body. Think of the way someone moves when they do yoga, tai chi, or dancing and move your body and your brush in this way.

A tool that I have found invaluable in building my own personal confidence with a brush is a large piece of “magic” paper. Magic Paper is a special grey-blue paper that allows you to paint strokes with water. The strokes show up black and disappear as the water evaporates. This allows you to “paint” on Magic Paper over and over again. Practicing on rice paper is essential for developing moisture control but prior to mastering moisture, one must develop confidence with the brush. The easiest way to build confidence is through repetition. A large piece of magic paper is a wonderful tool to encourage the type of repetition that not only builds confidence but also a sense of freedom and delight while using a brush. Nothing you do on magic paper is permanent, the only thing that lasts after a session of painting on magic paper is the confidence you gain with the brush!

Another important tool in Step 1 is an OAS Practice Roll. Part of gaining confidence with brushes is removing the scarcity of paper. With handmade single sheets of paper, it is easier to get intimidated. With the 50 foot long continuous Practice Roll, you are likely to feel more free. Also, because the Practice Rollaccurately simulates the moisture handling of more expensive handmade papers, you will begin to work on Step 2 of the mastery process and discover how Step 1 and 2 are inter-related.
Will you start the journey to Mastery with us? Confidence with the brush awaits all those who embark on this journey! Stay tuned! We plan to discuss the other steps of the Chinese Brush Painting Mastery Steps in future newsletters.

Oversized Magic Paper

MP15: $10

Small - 15"x13"

MP18: $20

Oversized Regular - 28"x17.5"

MP35: $30

Oversized Medium - 28.5”x35”

MP59: $40

Oversized Large - 28.5”x59”

OAS Practice Roll

This continuous roll of machine-pressed raw rice paper has bleed resistant qualities similar to Double Shuen (Xuan) paper. Chinese Brush Painters and Sumi-e Artists truly enjoy the ease of painting with ink and color.

P03A: $8.00

12” x 50 feet continuous roll

P03: $12.00

18” x 50 feet continuous roll

Step 2: Master the Moisture

As much as ink or color, as a Chinese Brush Painter you are painting with water. Water is the Yin to the Yang of the brush. Your brush confidently cuts a path through rice paper and the water on the brush fills and expands the stroke, expressing and finishing it sometimes in unexpected ways. One of the most surprising things that new painters encounter is the experience of how water reacts with rice paper. It is this reaction that makes Chinese Brush Painting remarkably appealing on one hand and on the other, at times, confoundingly frustrating. So how do we go about mastering the moisture? First, decide that the water or moisture on the brush is your friend. Tell yourself that water is your ultimate assistant. Understand that although it is powerful and expressive, it only finishes what you start with your brush. Learn to take credit for what happens with the moisture on rice paper because even if you were unaware of how water would finish your stroke, it only followed the command of your brush.

Different Moisture for Different Strokes

Realize that different strokes require different levels of moisture. For example, the stroke for a bamboo leaf should have almost a sopping wet brush. A stroke for the outline of a mountain should be much drier. A stroke for a leaf or a flower petal will be somewhere in between.

Don’t Forget to Reset the Brush

Some moisture mistakes come from not drying the brush after rinsing color or ink off. When you rinse the brush to change color, the brush will be sopping wet. It is important to dry the brush before loading a new color. Dry the brush by stroking it repeatedly on some folded paper towels. Then reload just water about 1/3 of the way up from the tip of your brush. From here you can load your other colors from lightest to dark.

A Great Exercise

Try this exercise for getting more comfortable with controlling the moisture in your brush. Choose a stroke that you will practice and make note of the preferred moisture level for that stroke. For example: bamboo leaf (very wet), z-shaped leaf stroke (medium moisture), bone stroke (low moisture). Then load your brush with just water to what you think is the appropriate amount. On a sheet of raw shuen paper (single shuen, practice shuen, moon palace or practice roll), paint the stroke. If the stroke is too dry, reload the brush and try again. If the stroke is too wet, continue painting the stroke without reloading the brush until you paint the stroke with the appropriate level of moisture. Focus on this level of moisture, reload the brush and try again.

Moisture Control Bootcamp Papers

These three papers are great to use together for practicing moisture discipline and working up to final compositions. The Moon Palace Roll, Practice Shuen and the brand new Vintage Single Shuen all handle moisture similarly. Practice strokes on Moon Palace, practice compositions on Practice Shuen and paint masterpieces on the Vintage Single Shuen!

P03M: Moon Palace Roll $12.00
18” x 50’ continuous roll more info


P03B: Practice Shuen $9.50
48 Cut Sheets (9.25” x 14.25”)  more info


Vintage Single Shuen
Cut Sheets (9.25” x 14.25”) more info
P36B-10: 10 Cut Sheets $7.00
P36B-50: 50 Cut Sheets $28.00
P36B-100: 100 Cut Sheets $49.00

In the last newsletter we talked about Step 2: Master the moisture. We talked about how Brush Painters actually think of Water as a color and how drying your brush by stroking it against a folded paper towel and then reloading water no more than 1/3rd of the way up the brush from the tip can help you target the correct amount of moisture especially when working with sensitive papers like Single Shuen.

Loading the Brush

Remember to start with a dry brush (see above). Then load just water up one third of the brush. Then load each color from lightest to darkest with the light colors loaded deeper in the brush. See the diagram below for how the colors should be loaded.

Blending the Brush

Next you should brush the loaded brush in a small circular motion against a clean flat surface like a porcelain or plastic blending plate. This will remove the hard line between the different colors and encourage your stroke to show natural fading from darkest to light. After blending, reloading the darkest color again on the tip of the brush as the blending decreases the intensity of that color.

Applying the Stroke

If you only paint the stroke with the tip of the brush (like writing with a pencil), then you will get a small dark stroke with almost no variation. The get the benefit of good loading and blending, you have to “lower the boom” with the brush. This setting the tip initially and then placing the rest of the body of the brush on the paper as you begin to pull the stroke downward like a mop rather than painting with the tip like a pencil.

Proper Color Preparation
Make sure to take the time and mix your colors to the proper consistency. The colors should be mixed thoroughly with water so the consistency is somewhere between non-fat milk and cream. The thicker the color the more intense the color will be but consistency should be uniform. Rushed color preparation can create inconsistent color and the water separation with show on the paper.

Check out this Use of Color Video for Examples of Color Loading and Blending

Look out for Step 4 of the Mechanics of Mastery in our Winter 2021 Newsletter!

 

What is the Mastery Process

Often times when we are studying Chinese Brush Painting whether on our own or in class with a teacher, we do not realize that there is a tangible set of skills that, when properly developed, can make all painting activities more successful and satisfying.

The Chinese Brush Painting Mastery Process is our way of identifying these skills and teaching them methodically to empower the OAS extended family of brush painters and Asian art enthusiasts to be more confident and experience more joy when they paint.

Step 4: Placing the Strokes in Composition

Order of the Strokes

Think about the order of strokes. Spontaneous style brush painting evolved from calligraphy. Chinese is a pictographic language. In other words, Chinese characters are really simple paintings. When training in Chinese Calligraphy, it is very important that the strokes are done in a specific order. This order is not random. It is the most efficient way to write the character to get the ideal spacing and balance.

Stroke by Stroke Instruction

When starting out, it is extremely beneficial to choose instruction that details stroke-by-stroke sequential instruction. This is what has made teachers like Ning Yeh and Mayee Futterman so successful. They provide enough structure so it is clear what must been done next. This allows a student to tackle ambitious compositions without getting lost.

When following this type of instruction, it important to stay in the present moment. There will be a lot of detail and that can cause you to be overwhelmed. Just do one thing at a time and don't overthink the strokes. Stay focused on the instruction and keep your mind otherwise clear.

It is a bit like the difference between a map and GPS. Some instructions are like Maps. They show you the overall picture and leave it up to you to find the way. While other formats are like GPS, they tell you exactly which way to go and what turns you need to make and when.

Some Composition Sayings

If you are more of a map person, here are a few of principles of successful composition that Ning Yeh mentions in his books.

Host and Guest

Most successful compositions have a major element that anchors the composition and a small element that balances. This idea of Yin and Yang is explored through many parts of Chinese culture, philosophy and art. Whenever you hear Ning Yeh refer to "host and guest" in this instruction, this is what he is referring to.

 

Fish Looking for the Same Food

When painting flowers or plants you will see Ning paint them so that their origins resemble an overhead shot of "fish looking for the same food". That is, the strokes seem to be heading for the same point without overlapping.

 

No Chicken Foot

A chicken foot is a stroke that finishes with three points that resembles a chicken's foot. This is a common mistake when painting branches and is unnatural. Better to alternate twigs coming from either side of a main branch.

Divide the White Space

One final thing to think about when placing strokes in composition is to think not about the strokes but about dividing the space of the paper in interesting ways. This takes the pressure off of the strokes themselves and is a trick that master artists use to make their paintings more interesting and balanced. For more information on this, see the post in our blog.

Enjoy The Journey Towards Mastery

We hope you are enjoying your journey towards mastery of these basic skills of Chinese Brush Painting. Many of these and much more wonderful information is covered in what many call the "Bible of Chinese Brush Painting" - Chinese Brush Painting: An Instructional Guide by Ning Yeh.

We encourage you to use this an any other of the wonderful tools available through Oriental Art Supply (OAS) to begin or continue your journey through the wonderful world of Chinese Brush Painting and Calligraphy.

Happy Painting!

Chinese Brush Painting Mastery Step 5: Following the Path to a Finished Composition

by Evan Yeh

Step 5: Following the Path to a Finished Composition

Quite possibly one of the biggest differences in mindset between Western and Eastern cultures shows itself in watercolor painting. There is an unpredictability to spontaneous style Chinese Painting that an Eastern mindset embraces. I remember being in my father’s Brush Painting classes and hearing him repeat the mantra “Do the stroke, whatever happens, happens.” Another one of my earliest memories of my father painting was watching him demonstrate a horse painting at the County Fair. As a large group of people looked on, he proceeded to paint the eyes of the horse. As he did this, he offered “I always start with the eyes of the horse. The eyes will tell me what the horse wants to do.”

These two examples show a mindset that is releasing expectations and willingly following a changing path with confidence and excitement even while being unsure of the way the path will wind or the final destination.

Quite often the hardest thing to resist for a painter with training in Western painting is to resist trying to “correct” a stroke that they judge as a mistake. Raw shuen (Xuan) paper used for spontaneous style Chinese Painting is very “honest” paper. If you judge a stroke as a mistake and try to fix it, this will be obvious. My father never says the word mistake, instead he offers the phrase “Happy Accident.”

The key to successful spontaneous style Chinese Painting is to see each stroke as it happens (reserving judgement), and then making the best choice for the next stroke. I see many artists develop a habit of stopping a painting after they make a “mistake,” crumpling it up and starting over. The problem with this tendency is that you will never develop the essential skill of recovering from an unexpected stroke. This is a skill that all master painters possess. So many of my Father’s best paintings are filled with unexpected strokes or “happy accidents.” This is one of the most exciting aspects of spontaneous style Chinese Painting. Once you learn to embrace the unexpected you can proceed joyously down the path to a rare combination of feelings: the feeling of mastery combined with the excitement of the unexpected.

Ning Yeh shared his family tradition with artists in Beijing during his 2010 American Artists’ Dream Journey Tour. Starting with the eyes of the horse, Ning Yeh picks the next best stroke based on his previous strokes, whether or not it was what he originally intended.

Practical Tips to Remember

• There are different types of practice. As critical as it is to practice strokes and elements to build confidence, it is equally as important to practice finishing compositions. When you are doing this type of practice, always complete a painting. No matter what goes wrong, don’t waste the opportunity to practice the skill of reacting to the unexpected by making the next best choice.
• Suspend the judgment of your analytic mind while you are painting. There will be plenty of time to evaluate and judge after the painting is complete. Instead, develop the habit of reacting to the unexpected with delight and positive expectations. Rather than saying “darn it, I didn’t mean to do that,” instead say, “how interesting, what should I do next?”
• Allow your mind to think out of the box of your original expectations. Ink drips can be turned into butterflies or bees. Water spills can become mist or clouds. I’ve seen master artists leave these types of things on framed paintings as signposts of spontaneity.
• Expectations are not bad, they just need to be applied with an open mind and long term thinking. Over time positive expectation can be a very powerful creative tool.

(Above) Evan and Jashin painting collaboratively.

Collaborative painting is when the two artists work together on a piece of artwork, alternating strokes or groups of strokes. It teaches the important lesson of releasing your expectations, focusing on what is already on the paper, and taking the next best step.

Release yourself from your own expectations and experience the joy and freedom it allows.

Chinese Mastery Step 6: Wet Mounting and Framing

Chinese Brush Painting Mastery Step 6: Wet Mounting and Framing

by Evan Yeh

Step 6 - Wet Mounting and Framing:

Because Chinese Brush Painting and Calligraphy is done on traditional rice paper, there is a process that is used to finish the paintings to make them suitable for framing. Rice paper is comparatively thin and because of the amount of moisture that is used in Chinese Brush Painting the paper can experience some minor buckling and waviness even after the painting is dry. You will also notice that because many rice papers are absorbent, the colors fade after they are dry.

This is why most Chinese Brush Paintings are finished with a traditional wet mounting process that flattens the paper and restores the colors. Instructions for wet mounting are tricky to find and many master painters consider it one of the secret processes that can only be shared with trusted long-time pupils. At Oriental Art Supply we have taken Ning Yeh’s system of wet mounting and paired it with ideal materials to make the wet mounting process accessible to all of you, our OAS Extended Family of Brush Painters.

We have guided thousands of artists through this process with a predictable level of success. So our first bit of advice is, “You can do it!” The second thing before we get into the details is that wet mounting is worth learning how to do. It is an integral part of creating a properly finished Chinese Brush Painting and it is the best way to give an observer or collector the experience of what the painting was like when you actually painted it. The way wet mounting returns the colors of the painting to their original vibrancy cannot be duplicated, so it is a process that is worth learning.

Basics of Wet Mounting

It is good to understand the basics of what you are doing when you wet mount. This will reduce your stress level and eliminate obvious mistakes that can result from being unclear of the basics. When you wet mount you are gluing the back of your painting to a larger piece of backing paper. Then you are gluing the edges of the back of your newly affixed painting and backing paper to a board for drying. It is important to remember that you are always applying glue to the back rather than the front.

Wet Mounting Success Tips

• Practice, practice, practice: do not wait until you have beloved finished masterpieces to practice wet mounting. Mount lots of practice pieces that you don’t care about to build your confidence and understand the variables that relate to successful mounting in your environment. Mounting practice pieces has a two-fold benefit. It builds your confidence in your wet mounting skill and it increases the value of your practice pieces. Once you see your pieces mounted with the flat finished look and the vibrant colors you may decide to frame pieces you once thought were just for practice.
• When mounting, give yourself plenty of time. We have made our share of mistakes over the years because we felt rushed or were fatigued from a late night session that was necessary because of procrastination. You should develop a habit of mounting work regularly that way you are never out of practice or rushed.
• Use the right paste and use it in the correct way. We spent a lot of time sourcing our OAS Mounting Paste. We mounted thousands of paintings with it and have the highest level of confidence in the way that it performs. A key to successful mounting is the right paste mixed to the right consistency, applied thinly and evenly.
• Find the right environment for successful mounting. Avoid mounting in excessively dry or hot environments. Stay away from artificial heat sources. You want the glue to dry slowly. If an excessively dry or hot environment causes the glue to dry too quickly, you risk causing tears in the painting.
• Avoid color bleeding by using a piece of “blotting” paper when you wet mount. Place your finished painting face down on top of a piece of raw paper like our OAS Practice Roll. When you apply the glue to the back of the painting, if you get any bleeding from the colors they will bleed onto your blotting paper instead of on the painting itself. After you put your painting on your board to dry, you should be able to peel off your blotting paper. Additionally, OAS recommends spraying painting with Krylon Crystal Clear to bring out color vibrancy and reduce bleeding.

Signature and Seal

The signature and application of soapstone seal imprints are an important part of traditional Chinese Painting. To sign a work an artist signs their name in Chinese Calligraphy and stamps an imprint of their Artist Name Seal in close proximity to their signature. If you do not have a Chinese Artist Name, you can purchase an OAS Signature Card.

This is an incredible value where, most commonly, some combination of your first and last name is translated into Chinese. This is done by choosing Chinese characters that when spoken sound like your name. For example my English name is Evan and my Chinese name is YiFan (逸帆) literally translated as “smooth sailing.”

Your new Chinese name will be delivered in a handsome folder which contains a finished example of how your Chinese name is written as well as a stroke diagram that details in which order the strokes are done. Practicing writing your new Chinese name is a fun way to introduce yourself to the practice of Chinese Calligraphy which can have huge benefits for your development as a brush painter.

Mood Seals

When you look at classic Chinese Brush Painting masterpieces you will often see other seal imprints in addition to the Artist Name Seal. Chinese Brush Painters acquire or have carved “mood” seals whose meanings have significance. Oftentimes, a particular seal will adorn a group of paintings tying them together with a philosophical idea or a sense of the season. Collecting seals is fun and rewarding for any level of artist. There are fairly inexpensive mood seals, for those on a budget, all the way up to one of a kind treasures with artistic sculpted tops, hand selected stones, and exquisitely composed imprints.

Although soapstone seal collecting is not as mature as some other types of collection (like coins and stamps etc.), there is no question that the activity has everything that a collector looks for. You have a one of a kind found object in nature, shaped by hand by a skilled artist, carved with a poetic meaning, and useful both for making practical imprints on paintings or other correspondence as well as to purely display as a work of art unto itself.

Chinese Brush Painting Mastery Step 7: Showing and Selling

by Evan Yeh

Step 7 - Showing and Selling

For anyone who intends to show and sell their artwork, one of the most important things to focus on is self appreciation and acceptance. In the process of living my life, I have come to believe that there is no objective standard by which the world judges artists. Everything is a matter of taste and opinion and so the most important place that an artist can focus is to create a belief that they have tremendous, unique worth and as a consequence everything that they create has tremendous value.

Depending on our previous mental habits this belief may seem like the next logical step or it may seem very difficult to attain. Wherever you start on your journey to self acceptance and appreciation, it is important that you start. In a certain way, the goal of your life’s experience is to identify the part of the Universe that is embodied uniquely through you and to go about expressing it for all the world to see.

Day by day you should practice focusing on the unique qualities that you possess and affirming and appreciating them. This will result in two very important things.

1. It will make your paintings more unique as they will begin to reflect and express something unique that only you possess
2. It will begin to attract others who see and wish to celebrate that uniqueness by purchasing your paintings and telling others about what you are doing

Some of you may be saying, “doesn’t this all sound a bit egotistic?” First and foremost, the Universe does not judge those who act out of ego. There are laws of the Universe at play every moment of every day and they can be utilized by those who act out of ego just as effectively as those who act out of humility. So being absent of ego is not a criteria for being a successful artist. But for those of you that are searching for deeper satisfaction than just acting out of your ego, the question you should ask is, “Who am I?” If you pose this question to the Universe and faithfully wait for your answer you will discover that you are more than your ego. Your ego is just your mind’s limited idea of who you are. Once you discover who you really are, you can go about expressing this and being assured that your intentions are holy acts completely in line with your life’s ultimate purpose.

Now that we have discussed this critically important precursor for Step 7, we should discuss some practicalities. First and foremost, it is important that the traditional way that most of us think that art is marketed and sold is inaccessible to the large majority of artists and is under tremendous pressure from new technology. We imagine a crowd full of people in black turtlenecks in a New York loft looking sideways at a piece of Avant Garde artwork or posh gallery shows with people sipping champagne. If you feel this is your path to selling your artwork, by all means, I encourage you to pursue it but all of us should understand how technology has completely transformed the way art is bought and sold. There is a branch of technology that is focused on removing the traditional obstacles between an artist and their patrons. Everyday you see examples of artists who are successfully using this technology to build connections with patrons and selling their work directly without the assistance of promoters or galleries.

A key change in mindset brought about by the availability of such technology is as follows:

Rather than thinking that I am making original paintings that I will sell one by one, artists are now thinking I am creating original images that I own the reproductions rights for. Of course the originals can be sold but the images can also be reproduced as artist quality prints or even printed on posters, t-shirts and other merchandise and sold.

Diving deeply into the technological tools helpful for a modern artist is beyond the scope of this article but I did want to mention two essential tools that I think are the most important. They are a smart phone and Instagram. It is hard to escape smartphones nowadays and most of us have access to one. For those who have yet to discover the power of smartphones, let me just say that for a visual artist, the ability to take a high quality picture of a flower, a piece of scenery, one of your paintings, or anything else inspiring you may encounter and instantly share it with worldwide audience using a device that can fit in the palm of your hand is invaluable. This device has become so ubiquitous that the issue for most is not whether you have one but whether you have harnessed its full potential towards your artistic intentions. Suffice it to say, if you do not have one, I would recommend getting one. If you have one already but don’t use it for anything other than emergency calls, I would start learning how to do a couple simple things like how to take a picture and upload it to a social media platform like Instagram or Facebook.

This leads us to our second most important technology tool and that is Instagram. There are so many social media platforms: Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, Twitter and many more. But for those of us who really know them, there is no question that the most effective one for visual artists like painters is Instagram. I know many artists who network and sell their work using no other tools other than Instagram. When they meet people, they don’t hand them a business card, they just direct people to their Instagram account. Instagram is really a picture sharing platform. In this way, it is by far the easiest way for a visual artist to create an online presence and to begin networking that online presence with other artists and influencers as a way to build an audience and make connections with possible collaborators and patrons. Among the social media platforms Instagram is the most focused on pictures (excellent for visual artists like painters) and is also known for encouraging people to make rapid connections with other like-minded artists.

There is an old adage among salespeople that goes “People buy from who they know, like and trust.” So a common way for artists in this new age of technology is to communicate and share bits of their life as an artist as a way to make a connection with their patrons. I am amazed at the trust that is built up between artists who share in this way and their audiences.

One general comment that I would like to make is that as an artist you should always be trying to connect directly to potential patrons who may collect your work. We all enjoy participating in art societies, support groups and events like art trade shows but be conscious if these events are really attracting a large group of potential art patrons or if they are really targeted to attract other artists. Connecting with other artists is enjoyable and those relationships can be helpful for providing inspiration and sharing techniques but they should not be mistaken for efforts to attract patrons.

The funnel analogy. Digital marketers often imagine a funnel. At the top widest point they are pouring in potential customers and as the funnel gets more narrow they are asking for increasing levels of commitment from these potential customers. For an artist, this can look something like this:

Now the great majority of artists thinking about starting to sell their work may not be set up for all of this, but all of it is more accessible to an individual artist than ever before. Rather than printing a fancy coffee table style album, you can have a simple electronic book in PDF format that features a collection of your work. Rather than printing out hundreds of copies of your paintings to sell as prints you can partner with a print-on-demand that will print copies of your artwork as the prints are sold and even handle fulfillment. There are services that bundle many of these services together and also will help you build and launch a website to serve as an initial contact point for everything. You can look at https://www.artstorefronts.com/ as a starting point but there are many more offering similar services.

Have patience with yourself and don’t be overwhelmed. Often making the decision that you will show and sell your work will bring into your experience the right circumstances and situations to get started. Also it can have a positive maturing and organizing effect on your creative process to think about focusing for a period of time, producing a body of work and showing and selling that work. Then you can move into a different creative space and restart the mastery process again to produce another body of work.

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