What to put your the website if you are an artist.

1) The art work

Try and think like a gallery hanging a show. Would a gallery

put 20 paintings of an artist’s art work on one wall? No,

because the visitor would be completely confused and not

be able to focus on any one painting. The same rule

applies to artist’s websites. If you cram 20 pictures on one

page the Web visitor will move on. Feature a few paintings

on each page.

The opposite is also true. Do not put only a few pictures on

your artist website. There is nothing more frustrating than

finding an artist that you like on the Web and not being able

to see a representational body of work.

2) Background color

Background color on a website is just as important as it is

in a gallery. White, light gray, cream are all safe colors.

Black can be very dramatic way to highlight paintings,

however, black makes text almost unreadable. If you use a

color, which can be done effectively, make sure that the

color works with all your art work and reflects who you are

as an artist.

3) Design

Keep it clean, classy and simple. Make sure to visit

"Websites That Suck." www. websitesthatsuck.com.

Make sure your artist’s website loads quickly; visitors on the

Web will not wait, they will leave.

Stay away from all the newest flashy innovations that web

designers often like. They usually irritate the visitor and take

longer to load.

4) Search engines only read text.

Search engines do not explain how outstanding your art

work may be. They only read text. It is very important to have

text on your website. The more relevant text the better.

5) Text on a website is different than text in a book or

magazine.

All the lessons that apply to "regular" writing do not apply on

the Web.

When you are writing text for your website, think bullet points

and outline. You want sentences to be short and choppy;

phrases work well. Paragraphs should be short. Make your

text chatty and do not be afraid to start your sentences with

words like "And" or "Because". Writing for the Web is the

opposite of what you learned in high school and college.

6) Splash pages are now out.

It used to be that on your Home Page you could put a

gorgeous picture of your art work and then move on from

that to the rest of your website. This is called a "splash

page". Search engines no longer like splash pages. It is

now recommended that on your home page you have text

explaining what the entire website is about and links to all

the major pages.

7) Connect with the visitor.

Just having fabulous pictures of your art work is not enough.

A Web visitor will usually visit one or two pages and most

likely seldom or never return. It is very important to give the

Web visitor a reason to stay on your website as well as to

come back. The usual artist’s statement is not going to

accomplish that.

Tell or show your Web visitor something about you. It could

be a picture of your studio, people love to visit studios;

information about what inspires you; your technique, if you

have an unusual one; a particularly interesting interview with

you. Use your imagination

Give away free information. Visitors on the Web love that.

There is probably something obvious to you that is big news

to your average Web visitor. Share that information with

them.

8) Let the visitor know how to contact you.

Make sure the visitor on the Web can contact you as well as

your gallery, if a gallery represents you. If the visitor can only

contact the gallery, it feels as if the gallery is holding the

artist hostage. The Web visitor will move on.

If a gallery is concerned about an artist having an email

address of his or her own, there is an easy solution. The

person who sends the email gets an automatic reply saying

their message has been received. The same email

message can be forwarded to both the artist and the gallery,

and together they can decide how the email could be

answered.

9) Make your website easy to navigate.

Make sure that it is easy for a visitor to find his or her way

around your website. If a Web visitor finds it the least bit

frustrating, they will leave.

© Mary Baker 2005

Mary Baker is a contemporary realist painter, whose studio

is in Newburyport, Massachusetts. This New England city,

north of Boston, has been the inspiration for the artist’s

realistic oil paintings. Mary Baker is a professional artist and

has shown in New York art galleries.

You can visit Mary at her website, Mary Baker Art, at http://www.marybakerart.com, see her beautiful paintings and read her articles

on a variety of subjects including, Art, Artists and Vocation,

Creativity, Tips on Breaking the Creative Block , Why Buy

Original Art and the four part series on Art, Artists and the

Web.

A list of articles can be found on her Site Map and

Mary's paintings can be seen on every page of Mary Baker

Art.