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As an artist, your portfolio website is a visual representation of your talent, style, and work. Today, having an online portfolio is less of an option and more of a necessity, whether you’re a painter, sculptor, or photographer. A well-crafted website can rightfully showcase your work to a global audience, bring in potential buyers or clients, and help build your reputation.
This guide will walk you through the process of creating a strong art portfolio website, covering everything from planning out your site to promoting it, so you’ll have everything you need to make a great impression.
1. Clarify your goals and audience
Before you start building out your art portfolio website, it’s important to define your objectives and target audience. This starts with asking yourself the following questions:
What do I want to achieve with my art portfolio website? Am I looking to attract clients? Sell my artwork? Build up my reputation?
Who is my primary audience? Art collectors? Potential clients? Gallery owners?
What is the message that I want to convey about my art and my brand?
Understanding the answers to these questions will help guide your decisions throughout the website creation process, from design choices to curating content.
2. Choose your best work
Your art portfolio should showcase your favorite pieces and accurately represent your style and skills. Here are some tips to help you select your best work.
Quality over quantity: Choose 10-15 of your best pieces of art maximum, rather than overwhelming website visitors with all of the art you’ve created.
Consider diversity: Be sure to show a range in your skills and subject matter, but be conscious of maintaining a cohesive style. Consider grouping similar styles or methods together, if you can.
Focus on recent work: Include images and information about your most recent pieces to demonstrate your current capabilities and interests.
Keep your goals in mind: Your goals are important. If you’re seeking commercial work, for example, make sure you include artwork that aligns with the types of clients you want to work with.
Remember that your portfolio is the place to show off. It’s ultimately a curated collection that is intended to leave visitors with a strong, lasting, positive impression.
3. Select a website builder
Where you choose to build your website depends on your priorities, whether that’s speed, price, flexibility, or something else. It’s also worth taking your current and future goals into account. Even if you just need a website now, where you choose to build and host your website can make it easier to do more in the future.
For many artists, a website builder with all-in-one tools, like Squarespace, is an ideal choice. Squarespace users can start a site with visually driven templates, AI-powered customization, and tools for invoicing clients and selling art, all within one website account.
4. Secure a domain name
Your domain—like squarespace.com—is like the street address for your website. Choosing a domain name for your portfolio is an important step.
When you’re going through this process, make sure you pick a domain name that sounds professional, is easy to remember and spell, and is relevant to your name or brand. Another important thing to remember: To optimize searchability and make things smooth, consider using your full name or a combination of your name and your art medium.
Try the free Domain Name Generator
5. Customize your design
The design of your website should clearly complement your artwork without burying it or overshadowing it. Here are some tips to consider.
Choose a clean, minimalist design that puts your artwork front and center.
Use a color scheme that complements your work and aligns with the colors you use.
Ensure that your site is optimized and responsive for mobile so website visitors can view it on their phones easily.
Maintain consistency with fonts, colors, and overall style throughout the portfolio.
When in doubt, consider how you want your website or art to make someone feel, and whether your design choices reflect that feeling.
Remember that the goal is to create a design that highlights rather than distracts, reflecting your artistic style while providing website visitors with an optimal viewing experience.
On Squarespace, you can add the different images and text you want in a website section and use the Layout Switcher to get automatic recommendations for how to lay them out. Or use Site Themes to quickly choose fonts and color palettes that fit your energy.
6. Build out the essential pages
A well-structured art portfolio website typically includes project pages, a professional bio, contact information, high-quality images and design, and oftentimes, a store.
Here are some things to consider for each section of your website.
Project pages
Dedicated project pages are a good space to share more detail about larger projects, like a series, client project and results, or collaborations. You don’t need a page for every project—think about which projects help you tell the story you want to share with your website visitors.
When creating project pages, try to:
Organize your work into categories if you work with multiple mediums.
Use high-quality images that accurately represent your artwork.
Include clear titles, an indication of what medium you used, and the year your artwork was made for each piece.
Add a brief description, story, or results behind select works of art to add context.
Professional bio
Your professional bio or About Me page should include some information about you as well as an artist statement, if that feels applicable. This is also a good place to highlight any relevant education, exhibitions, or awards that you want to show off.
Be sure to use this space to include a professional photo of yourself, communicate your passions, and emphasize what makes your artwork particularly unique. Consider what else a site visitor might want to know about you, like what you like about working with clients, and weave that in too.
Contact page
A contact page is essential because it allows website visitors to reach out to you if they’re interested in working together. It’s good to provide several ways for people to reach out to you. Include an email, business phone number, and/or social media handle just to keep options open.
Along with sharing your info, consider adding a contact form to make getting in touch even easier. You can customize this based on your goals. For example, a freelance designer might use this as a client intake form, with custom questions about project goals. A painter could use it to standardize outreach about their work.
If you have a physical studio or gallery space that people can visit, be sure to include the address in this section, too.
Online store
If you’re looking to sell your art online, creating a dedicated online store is essential. Some tips to remember when you’re building out your store:
Clearly display the prices, sizes, and accurate availability of your artwork.
Include secure payment options, including buy now, pay later options like Klarna.
Provide clear information on your shipping information and policies.
Make it easy to navigate and browse.
Ensure product photos and descriptions are clear and detailed.
If you want to start selling reproductions of your art, you can sell digital downloads in an online shop or use a print on demand service (POD) to sell prints. Print on demand companies handle production, inventory, and shipping, so you can start selling without the initial overhead costs.
7. Optimize for SEO
Focusing on search engine optimization (SEO) will help your website appear in search results when people are looking for art online. Here are some artist-specific SEO tips to consider.
Use descriptive, keyword-rich titles for each page of your website. That might mean including the name of a business you worked with or the name of a project or art category.
Write alternative text. Alt text is a descriptive text that provides information about your images to clearly describe your pieces for people using screen readers. Include relevant keywords to help them rank in image searches.
Create a page for blog posts, If it feels right for you and your process. Posts can highlight your artistic process, sources of inspiration, client projects, or upcoming exhibitions.
Consider using location-based keywords. This can help people discover your site if you’re specifically trying to target local clients or galleries in your area.
Optimize image sizes. This can help ensure that your website loads quickly, which can impact how search engines rank your site.
Read a guide to portfolio SEO from an expert
8. Promote your website and keep it updated
Once your website is live, it’s time to spread the word. You can do this by:
Sharing your website on social media platforms and asking clients to spread the word
Including your website URL in your email signature and on business cards
Collaborating with other artists who will cross-promote your work
Regularly updating your portfolio with relevant news and new work
Adding a newsletter sign-up to your website and sending regular updates
Sharing new projects or website updates to your email list and social media
See more tips for promoting your website
3 artist portfolio website examples
Use other successful artist portfolio websites as inspiration for your own portfolio. When you’re doing your research, keep an eye out for clean and intuitive navigation, stunning visual presentations, engaging About Me pages that tell a cohesive story, and clear calls to action.
Here are some examples of a few great artist portfolio templates to get you started on Squarespace.
Cami
Cami’s minimalist design is ideal for artists who are showcasing multidisciplinary work. With strategically placed white space and the opportunity to show off large photos, your work will shine with this template.
Talva
Talva is a great fit for the artist who works in a similar style across subjects, like still life photography, for example. It provides a robust landing page that focuses on imagery and allows artists to display their range of work.
Pazari
The Pazari template is perfect for creatives who work in distinct categories, like wedding photography. It allows you to show off different ways you work with subjects without overwhelming the person who’s looking at your portfolio.
No matter what approach you take, creating a portfolio is a bold and exciting step in your career as an artist, bringing your work one step closer to getting seen and purchased. Your website is an extension of your artistic vision, and with a portfolio, you’ll be able to showcase your work, connect with an audience, and open doors to new and exciting opportunities.