An Effective Flash Site

We are frequently critical of Flash websites, which overly complicate the user interface for no good reason, but velbenstudio.com demonstrates that it is possible to create a clean, easy-to-navigate site using Flash.

The site features the "standard" navigational menu, consistently placed on all pages.  It's clean, easy to use, and FAST, and the very simple design provides a great showcase for the artist's colorful work.

Visit to Gallery leads to Attractive Website

I first saw Marsha Rafter's work in a gallery in Auburn, California. I was intrigued by her technique, and afterwards visited her website, marsharafter.com.

It's important for artists to understand this increasingly common  scenario...  people today often visit the artist's site after seeing his or her work, to learn more about the artist.  The website provides a way for the artist to build a stronger connection with the visitor, leading to future sales.

The home page shows the artist at work, along with several good-sized thumbnails of her work with links to the gallery pages.

Clear and simply navigation choices on the left side of the page lead to information about the artist, her process, gallery pages, events, representation and ordering information.

The site's bold color is eye-catching and works well with the artist's mosaic creation, and the pictures of the artist give the site a personal feel.  

More importantly, the information on the site - the artist's background, technique, and other places to see her work - were exactly what I was looking for.

Congratulations Martha on an effective website.

Simple, Attractive Site Showcases Art Gallery

As we've often seen, a website doesn't need to be high-tech to be effective. Olde Towne Art has a clean, easy to navigate website (OldeTowneArt.com) that provides a good overview of the gallery, and showcases the work of each of the member artists.

The site also has a nice map and directions to the gallery - a must for an organization with a physical location. There's also a calendar with info on classes taught by the artists.

The color scheme of the site is bold, but the overall design is quite simple, and it manages to not distract from the artwork in the "Artists" section.

An artist or art group website need to present information and showcase artwork... anything beyond that risks becoming a distraction. Olde Towne Art gets it right with a simple and effective site.

Clean Design Showcases Collage Work

Megan Coyle produces unique works of collage art, using a technique she calls "painting with paper." Each work is made up of myriad bits of colored paper.

In contrast, the design of her website - mcoyle.com - is quite simple, with a minimum of color, so her work really "pops" from the page. The site contains a great deal of information about the artist, her work, and even caring for collage art. The Art (portfolio) section shows a good select of Megan's work; many of the individual pieces include links to purchase a print.

The artist also has a mailing list, RSS feed, and pages on FaceBook, MySpace, Twitter, Flickr and YouTube, all of which can be reached through links on the footer of each page.

Watercolorist's Website Features Extensive Portfolio

Maud Durland's website, maudart.com, includes biographical information about the artist, current shows, awards, and gallery representation.  But the primary feature of the site is the extensive portfolio section, with over a dozen pages divided by theme. 

The portfolio pages feature good size thumbnails... big enough to give a general idea of the overall work.  Clicking on a thumbnail displays a larger image, and for many of the works, an order form for purchasing Giclee prints, art prints, or even the original work if it is still available.

This is a well-designed and highly functional site for a successful professional artist.

High impact images create a dramatic website

Collin Bogle creates realistic nature art. He's chosen several dramatic samples of his work to use as page backgrounds on his site, collinbogle.com, creating an immediate impact on site visitors.

Collin's site has "all the basics" we expect from a good artist site: consistent, easy navigation, basic info on the home page, gallery and event pages, and info on purchasing his work.

The use of dramatic images sets the site apart and invites the visitor to explore further. Congratulations to Collin on an effective artist website.

An attractive portfolio page

Fantasy artist and illustrator Michelle Hoefener has a very basic website. In fact the site, raingate.net, is just a single page!

But on that single page, Michelle provides a bit of background about herself, a link to a downloadable resume, an e-mail contact link, and two portfolio sections that provide a good representation of her work. By using her own work as a page background, she's created an attractive site with a lot of impact.

There is also a link to the artist's page at deviantART, where she maintains a journal and posts new work.

Hoefener's site shows that a basic site need not be boring, and can be an effective showcase for the artist and her work.