The following article is part of an interview I did with the Pastel Society of Southeast Texas. You can read the full interview here.
There are three main reasons that you need your own artist website:
1. to ensure that your art is taken seriously
2. to project a professional image
3. to control your own marketing assets.
Ensure Your Art is Taken Seriously
Most businesses need a great website to be taken seriously. When an artist makes the decision to market and sell her artworks, she is making the decision to start a business. That might not be obvious in the moment, but that's exactly the decision that is being made. And, since every serious business needs a modern, professional website that serves as its online hub, it follows that artists, to be taken seriously, also need great websites. Think about your own experiences: Surely you've had an occasion where you were interested in a business that you'd heard about, only to be disappointed when you couldn't find a website where you could learn more, contact the company, or make purchases. Or, perhaps worse, you found an old, ignored Facebook page, which was of no help and likely presented woefully out of date information. Don't do that to your potential customers! Make sure you have a modern, professional, up-to-date website so people can find you. Doing so will instill your prospects with the confidence that you are a serious artist.
Project a Professional Image
The second reason you need a website, and it flows directly from the first reason, is to project a professional image. Most artists are extremely discerning about the design and the type of frames that they will utilize around their paintings. Most artist are also concerned, when exhibiting, with the quality of the other artworks that hang near their own pieces. They worry that poor frames, or poor exhibits will reflect poorly on their own works and, conversely, know that great frames and great exhibits will reflect positively on their own artworks. Understandably, artists are concerned with safeguarding their hard-earned professional reputation. Many artists work for years, even decades, to perfect their artworks, so it makes sense to protect that professional image with great frames and great exhibits. This same idea extends to your website. When you don't have a website, or, perhaps even worse, when you have a poor website, it can greatly harm the perception of your artwork by association. And, of course, a great website, by association, will elevate the perception of professionalism about your art. FASO takes this idea even a step further and has built a reputation, similar to a great art gallery, of being "the" place for great artists. So when collectors see that red fleur-di-lis logo at the bottom of your site, they know you are in good company.
For example, just take a look at the beautiful, professional artist website we built for (and in collaboration) Jeremy Lipking:
