A Guide to Creating An Awesome Artist Website

What better way to showcase your art and yourself than on a well designed and aesthetically pleasing website. Websites can truly be an asset to you as they offer copyright protection, increase your online presence and visibility, be a multipurpose platform for your blogs and sales and of course, with a website, you have full creative license to enhance your personal brand.
Don’t worry, we are here to assist you with this guide that will give you countless relevant and useful information on creating an awesome artist website that works efficiently and looks stunning and professional.

“I Choose Hope” //Acrylic// by 2nd Edition Finalist, Lisa Hewett

CREATING YOUR WEBSITE URL

Let’s begin with your website URL also known as a web address or link. When developing your personal brand, your name is the central and most important aspect. So that, the best way to increase your online presence and make it easier for art enthusiasts to identify your website clearly is by using your name in the website URL. Think about it, when you are searching for an artist or his or her work, typically, the first thing you would type into a search engine is their name. Therefore, having your name as your domain URL helps your website gain a higher search engine ranking. For example, our website URL utilizes keywords in our brand name “BoynesArtistAward”. But, have you noticed that we excluded “Emerging”. That was a purposeful and intentional decision because you should keep your URL short and simple as the ultimate goal is for your viewers to easily recall your web address.

 Another way to craft your URL is by including key art terminologies and keywords that relate to your medium. This will  be beneficial in specifying and personalizing your brand as well as increasing your search engine ranking because many search engines such as Google place great importance on keywords, especially, as it pertains to domain names. 3rd Edition Finalist, Phillip Gagnon’s website URL is a perfect example of this. His URL is composed of his name followed by “art” which already gives clear information on what to anticipate from his website even before you click on it.

“Evening Delight” //Oil// by 3rd Edition Finalist, Phillip Gagnon

ARTIST STATEMENT & CV

This is a key section on your website that allows you to introduce yourself to your viewers so that they can get acquainted with you as an artist. Your artist statement is an opportunity to be creative and show your personality and passion for the work that you create. In this description, you can focus on topics such as your inspirations and influences as they relate to your pieces, critiques of your work, frequently asked questions pertaining to your work, and the mediums, materials, and techniques or methods that you use. The best way to convey your message efficiently and effectively in your statement is to write in the 1st person and active voice. This will allow you to develop a better connection with your audience, unlike 3rd person which would establish a certain degree of distance and disjointedness. Remember that your viewpoint and voice are your agency and power in your statement. Keep it concise and succinct (100-200 words) as to not lose the essence of what you’re writing about.

Your Curriculum Vitae (CV) as an artist usually entails all of your artistic professional history, achievements and awards, grants, residencies and art-related education, contact information such as email address and telephone number while excluding information such as specific location or address. Remember to note both dates and brief descriptions and web addresses where possible to make the experience more user-friendly. It’s also great to include any exhibitions, press coverages and projects that you have undergone or that you are undergoing. 

"Midnight Patrol” //Scratchboard// by 2nd Edition Submitter, Sheryl Unwin

HOMEPAGE

The homepage or landing page of your website is the first impression that you leave on your viewers, so you want it to be as awesome as possible. On this page, you should start with a clear title that introduces what your website is about. For example, Photography by “your name”. You can showcase a few images of your work on this page but do not insert too many. The right artwork for this page will portray your style of work.
As with all the other pages, you need to have a drop down menu or navigation tool for users to be able to access the other pages with ease. Equally, you should include your contact information such as social media handles and email address at the bottom of each page and especially on this one.

“Abstract Paradise” //Oil on Linen// by 2nd Edition Submitter, Erik Nieminen

GALLERY

Your gallery is the section of your page dedicated to showcasing your artwork and projects. To let the images speak for themselves and capture your talent and hard work, you should use high quality images. This page should also be as user friendly as possible, therefore, try organizing your artwork in such a way that each collection has its own page. Also, remember to give descriptions of your artwork such as the title, dimensions, medium and date of creation as well if it is available for sale and the price. You can see an example of a gallery layout on our page. In your description, you can equally incorporate a paragraph describing the symbolism within each or a few pieces to make this page even more interesting. Sometimes in your gallery, a “less is more” approach is often taken amongst artist as to avoid over cluttering. 

“Ready To Go” //Acrylic on Artboard// by 3rd Edition Submitter, Jackson Lee

NEWS & EVENTS

This division is a fantastic way to keep your viewers up to date with upcoming events such as exhibitions, workshops or classes, commissions, shows and many other news and events that you would like to share with your audience. It will also be useful for you to create a sign-up email list for your newsletter that your audience can sign up to on this page, helping them to keep abreast and be notified of all the happenings regarding your art. 

“Pink Flamingo” //Collage// by 3rd Edition Submitter, Sue Dowse

BLOG

Many artists incorporate blogs into their websites so that their audience has access to more knowledge in one place. Blogging is another way to engage and share captivating content with your audience. You can write about your medium, your experiences, your influences, the tools you use to create your pieces, your favourite art movements, and so many other interesting topics. Your audience will love that they are able to get credible and trustworthy advice from skilled artists as much as you will enjoy imparting your knowledge and efforts to the art community and you can also monetize your art blog to generate a passive income.

“Beach People” //Vinyl// by 3rd Edition Submitter, Joel Clark

WEBSITE BUILDING PLATFORMS

Some more great news for you is that there are platforms that can actually build and design your website for you. For example, a plan with Squarespace ranges between $12-$40 per month and will allow you to build each section of your website in a truly aesthetic way. Wix, Wordpress and Webflow also have a lot to offer especially regarding artists because you can design visually appealing websites while providing useful and helpful material throughout the building and launching process. These easy-to-use platforms all have a diverse range of templates that will spark ideas and help you on the path to creating your professional and stunning website.

We hope that our guide to creating an awesome artist website will help enhance your personal brand and assist you in designing and launching one of your main communicative channels with your audience.