If you’re an artist, you know there are two parts to your job — making art and marketing yourself. The second is just as important as the first because it brings in people who want to buy your artwork or hire you.
But, you might feel that it’s easier said than done to fit promoting your work into your busy day. On top of all your demands as an artist, you have a lot of other responsibilities too. Marketing can quickly become one more thing to do that just … doesn’t get done.
Fortunately, building an art portfolio website doesn’t have to be difficult (nor take too much of your time). That’s a good thing too, because having a site to promote your work is crucial for success. Compared to relying on social media alone, a website gives you more control over your online presence, and makes you appear more professional too.
In this article, we’ll help you slay the tired cliche of the starving artist, and show you how to build your own portfolio site (even if you’re a total beginner). We’ll also offer some examples of professional artist websites that you can follow. Stick with us, and you’ll be up and running in no time.
Why do you need an artist portfolio website?
Creating a portfolio website for your art will improve your self-marketing process by:
- Showcasing your work: You’ll have a collection of your work on hand to share with others with one link. Plus, visitors coming to see your website could become new clients or employers.
- Encouraging art sales: A website gives you plenty of room to encourage sales by sharing your art and artist story. Ecommerce tools and commission pages also make it easy for visitors to buy your work.
- Giving you control over your web presence: Even though you could use a portfolio platform to host your art, you wouldn’t have as much control over its presentation as you would with a website. With WordPress, you can customize every part of your website, and get complete control over your content and how your work is presented.
What should an art portfolio website include?
One of the trickiest steps to building an online portfolio can be finding the right pieces to add to it. While you know the range of your work, your typical visitor doesn’t, and you’ll need to communicate it through the art you display. Follow these steps to choose your very best pieces to display:
- Start by thinking of the type of work you want people to pay you for. For example, maybe you want to specialize in portraits, even though you also dabble in landscapes. In this case, you could focus on portraits and other pictures of people over landscapes and still objects.
- If you have multiple specialties you want to work in, consider if they should have separate portfolio pages. Perhaps you like to do commissions of people’s video game characters on top of your typical concept art. You could add a separate portfolio page for these commissions since they involve a different audience.
- Once you know what portfolio pages and themes you want to have, choose 10 to 15 of your highest-quality pieces for each page. This is subjective, of course, but trust your own eye and taste to select the pieces that make you the most proud.
How to build a website for your art portfolio
Now that you know what an art portfolio website looks like, here’s how to build your own using WordPress.com.
Create a WordPress.com account
Visit WordPress.com’s account creation page to make an account for your website. You’ll use it to manage your website design, hosting, and domain.
As you sign up, you’ll have the option to choose a domain name and WordPress.com plan. If you decide to get a domain right away, make your domain name related to your name or your brand name (if you have one). It’ll be easier for people to find you if they can remember your website address. A custom domain also looks more professional and helps build trust with visitors.
If you’re considering a paid plan, keep in mind that users who sign up for the Business plan and above can use plugins. These add-ons increase site security, sell items online, and add all sorts of other functionality to your site.
Choose your WordPress theme
After you finish the signup process, you’ll land on your WordPress dashboard. Here’s where you’ll create, edit, and maintain your website.
Start your website building process by choosing a theme using the Appearance option in the left-hand menu (or click here while signed in). WordPress themes determine your site’s appearance. All themes work with the portfolio function, but you might be especially interested in the portfolio-specific themes.
Set up your homepage
With your theme chosen, you can begin designing your portfolio site’s pages. Your homepage is the first page most visitors will see, so it’s a great place to start.
Most WordPress themes come with a premade layout for your homepage, and you can modify it to make the best first impression possible. Our blog post on good website homepages includes plenty of tips, but some you can apply to your artist website include:
- Showcasing your most popular work: Include pieces that embody your work on your homepage so visitors can get the gist of what type of art you make.
- Follow the inverted pyramid model: Begin your homepage with the most important information about you, such as your name and position as an artist. Then you can share less important information, like callouts to other pages on your site.
- Go for function over form: It can be tempting to take a mainly artistic approach to your website. But, before anything else, make sure your visitors know what you do and can navigate to the information they need.
Create an about page
Your about page gives you the chance to introduce yourself to anyone interested in your work. Here at the WordPress Go blog, we break down what you should cover on your about page into three concepts: who you are, what you do, and why you do it. For you as an artist, that means including topics like:
- The media and subjects you specialize in: What do you use to make art, and what do you make art of?
- Your background in art: When did you start creating art? What drove you to become an artist? What subjects did you cover in the past?
- Your personal life: What personal details about yourself would you like to share? How has your life influenced your art?
- The reasons behind your art: Why do you make art, and what inspires you to do it every day?
- Where people can find your art: Have you shown your art at any galleries? What about having it published in a book?
You can also add a self-portrait or photo of yourself if you have one to share. If you plan on working with any clients in-person, this addition helps visitors better understand what it’s like to work with you.
Add a contact page
Think of your contact page as your website’s unexpected heavy-hitter. It’s short and straightforward, but it’s responsible for connecting you with clients and employers. Keep this page easy to understand and up to date.
A contact form lets you take queries and filter them by need. WordPress’s built-in form block lets you make a form in the editor and customize its fields. You could, for example, add a drop-down menu for visitors to specify if their message is related to gallery showings or commissions.
Include any other ways people can contact you, too, such as a business phone number or studio address.
Design your portfolio page
With your website’s fundamental pages set up, you can move on to the star of the show — your portfolio. WordPress.com’s portfolio projects feature lets you create a portfolio page and add individually customizable projects.
If you see the Portfolio option on your dashboard’s left sidebar, you can already start adding projects. If not, go to Settings > Writing, then scroll to the Content types section. Click the toggle next to Portfolio projects and enter the number of projects you want to show per portfolio page.
To add a project, visit Portfolio > Add New on your dashboard’s sidebar. Since you have full access to WordPress’s block editor, you can add all sorts of media types to a portfolio project. Feel free to add some context to your art through text, video, or your favorite WordPress block.
Keep in mind that WordPress offers multiple size options when you upload an image. An image’s original size usually shows its quality most effectively, but if it’s a large image, it can also impact loading times. Think carefully about the right image size for your art, or resize it with your favorite photo editing software before you upload it.
WordPress.com tip: When you build a WordPress portfolio, you can also sort your portfolio projects into types and tags. Types organize projects into broader groups, while tags get more granular.
Start a blog (optional)
Want to invest more time into marketing yourself? A blog on your website can be a great channel for spreading the word about your art and vision. Consider starting a blog about topics like:
- Your newest artwork
- Participation in events like gallery showings, cultural festivals, or conventions
- Tidbits of your life
- Causes you care about
- Collaborations with other artists
- Other art that influences your work
Link your social media
Help your visitors stay up to date with your art by adding links to your social media accounts and other platforms you use as an artist. The social icons block shares these sites for you with eye-catching icons. Add the block to your site, then choose what services you want to link out to, including social media platforms and art sites like Behance.
Plus, if you have a theme that supports the Site Editor, you can go to Appearance > Editor on your dashboard sidebar to add the block to your header, footer, or sidebar.
More pages to consider adding
Your website gives you the freedom to add whatever pages you need to share your work as an artist. Maybe you’d benefit from additional pages about:
- Your commission info (read a guide on taking commissions here)
- Listings of where people can see your art, like showing or gallery details
- Links to books or prints you’ve published of your work
- A page explaining what you’re like to work with if you do one-on-one client work
- An online shop for your art prints (try using the WooCommerce plugin)
There are more types of pages your website could include, but the list above should cover all the essentials.
Related Reading:
- How to Create an Online Portfolio Website With WordPress to Share Your Best Work
- How to Build a Photography Portfolio Website (With 9 Stellar Examples)
- How to Make a Writing Portfolio Website (With 19 Examples)
- How to Easily Create a Stunning Web Design Portfolio (+Examples)
- How to Make a Copywriting Portfolio: 15 Examples + The Process
8 artist website examples for inspiration
What does an art portfolio website look like in action? Here are eight examples from artists in various disciplines:
1. George McCalman
George McCalman is an artist and creative director focused on telling stories about culture.
One of the most compelling design choices on his website is his Mission + Contact page. He centers his about page on his creative purpose and includes his contact info to drive you to action after you discover his mission.
The hand-drawn logo and randomized homepage intro also infuse George’s creative spirit into his website through his art.
2. Billy Schenck
Consider Billy Schenck your go-to artist for pop art inspired by the American West.
He has decades of art under his belt, so he has to organize his portfolio carefully. You can browse his paintings by decade to get the full picture of his creative journey. Notice how on each of his portfolio pages, he uses the WordPress slideshow block to give each piece its due attention.
3. Suanjaya Kencut
Suanjaya Kencut shares an original world of fuzzy doll characters with button eyes through his art.
If you know how WordPress works, you’ll see how he uses portfolio projects and blog posts to efficiently share exhibitions, press coverage, and work by the year. All he has to do is create a new post or project in the relevant category to add to that section of his portfolio. The end result comes out seamlessly.
4. Ed Ruscha
Ed Ruscha is an artist who took part in the pop art movement of the 1950s and creates artwork mainly focused on text.
His website shows how you can use a portfolio page of your featured work as your homepage if you’d like to get to the point with your site. You can “get the look” of his homepage by using WordPress’s slideshow block at the top of the page and sharing additional works through the blog posts block.
5. Anish Kapoor
Sculptor Anish Kapoor’s modernist work appears in museums across the world.
The website he uses to showcase his work has an entirely text-based homepage with links to work going back to 1973. You can click on different menu items to highlight different categories of his work within the text. This portfolio website demonstrates how you can get creative with your layout while keeping everything organized.
6. Marlene Dumas
Marlene Dumas specializes in painted portraits that explore emotions and the human body.
Her site has a simple design that allows the pictures of her art to shine. It has black, serif text on a white background in a single column that sends attention over to the site’s images.
7. Judy Chicago
Judy Chicago creates abstract, minimalist, and feminist art using media ranging from acrylics to fireworks.
Her website includes elements that you can add to your website using WordPress. With WordPress.com Newsletter, you can create your own combination blog/newsletter like Judy’s Chicago Gazette. You can also create a timeline of your exhibitions inspired by Judy’s by using the timeline block.
8. Steve Turner Gallery
This example’s a little different — it’s a gallery website instead of an individual artist’s website. But, the Steve Turner Gallery includes profiles of all of its artists that function as mini-portfolios for your inspiration. Visit each artist’s page to get a clear overview of their art, CV, press coverage, and creative vision.
Get the most out of your artist portfolio
Once your art portfolio website is ready to go, you have one of the most powerful marketing assets an artist could have. Post it on social media, share it with potential clients, and be proud of what you’ve created.
As your work evolves, your portfolio can, too. Once you get the hang of building and maintaining your website, try new avenues for making money with your artwork using WordPress.com. Your website is your canvas — go forward and create.
This article was updated on July 12, 2023.
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