Does #Technique make #Art?

I think you have to be able to paint well to be an artist.  The craft makes the art.  If you cannot control the medium, make exactly the light, the colour you want, what exactly are you doing?. If you accidentally make a piece that appears to be something more that in it is, is it art?   Is there such a thing as #accidental art?  One certainly can #paint something #beautiful by mistake, I've done it lots of times!! But if I meant to express one thing and by accident expressed something else, maybe equally meaningful in some sense, am I an artist? Or just a poor painter!
If what I think  is true, all great art has an underpinning of controlled technique.  Even the most abstract, or apparently simple art requires technique.  But, where is the line  between between a painting by a child, clear in intent, harmonic without guile, with a flawless composition because she didn't know 'better', and 'great art'?  The child likely cannot draw perfectly nor mix nuanced colours 'on purpose'.  If the piece is astounding, is it art?  Or just a painting by a child?  oh dear. 

#Painter or #Artist?

So I'm newly retired but have been #painting for a while now.  People, upon hearing that I paint, will sometimes say things like 'I understand you are an # artist.  Well, I paint.  Maybe the decision as to whether I am an artist is in the eye of the beholder?  What makes #art?  I did a piece and referred to it as #craft.  For indeed, if I do say so myself, it is splendidly done.  The #drawing is correct, the shading beautiful, the image lovely.  The viewer disagreed and said it was art.  mmm. But I didn't create the image per se, I worked from a lovely photograph that I did not take.  I think the photographer is the artist, I the crafter.  
But a painting is different than a photograph; by reproducing the image with paint, with nuances of texture and shading available to me, did I make art too?
Is art the image, the mood, the expression?  You're thinking, of course!
Ok, so if I take a photo of my garden, my child, the tree across the street, then reproduce that, is it art?  Now you're thinking, no, not if just an accurate reproduction.  But the great pieces of art that fill our museums, pre-expressionsts, are just that.  Are they great craft instead of #great art???

Need to #paint Need to #sell

But what to paint, so many possible #paintings, so little time.  Do you paint what you think might sell?  Do you paint what sings to you right now?  But what about the 1/2 finished painting (s) still needing your attention?
Do you paint big paintings because they might be popular or because you want to go big or go home?  Do you paint small because they are quick or can support a lower price tag thus be more #marketable?
So #artists and #painters who actually need to make some money, what do you do???