How to Create an Art Portfolio Website Using WordPress CMS?

An art portfolio website is crucial for an artist, community/group of artists, enthusiasts of art, or a business firm to showcase, share, and promote their artwork and work to the public. The website should have an attractive and stylish appearance to achieve this. In the past, constructing an art portfolio website was an exceedingly difficult task. You had to engage a developer to construct a custom website, and it could be very expensive. This might not be a viable option for everyone, especially freelancers.

Nowadays, it is possible to create your own personalized websites as various suitable open-source content management systems (CMS) are available on the market. You can utilize any CMS if you are an artist who hopes to present your works more professionally or distinctively. In this article, I will focus on the process of creating your own art portfolio website using WordPress CMS. WordPress is a powerful and reliable open-source content management system which, in my opinion, is suitable for affordable art portfolio websites. More than 30% of websites are now built on the WordPress content management system.

Create a Creative Portfolio Website

I assume you already have an active domain and are using our Standard Web Hosting Plan or Managed WordPress Hosting Plan. Creating your customized art portfolio website using WordPress is very simple by following the steps described in this article.

WordPress Installation

We provide cPanel control panel on our web hosting plans – both Standard and Managed WordPress Hosting Plans. The cPanel offers you a simple and user-friendly interface to manage your websites associated with your web hosting account. Please note that you need to have cPanel access to perform the steps described in this article. If you don’t know your cPanel username and password, no worries, please check your welcome email first. If you haven’t received the credentials yet, you can contact our Support Team via live chat or support ticket.

1. You need to log in to your cPanel control panel first. You can access cPanel from your portal at https://my.webhostingpeople.net.
2. After successful login, scroll down to the “SOFTWARE” section and click on “Softaculous Apps Installer”. The Softaculous Apps Installer is a useful tool to install required scripts like WordPress with a single click.
3. You should see WordPress under “Top Scripts”. Move the mouse over the WordPress tab, and you should see an “install” option. Click on it.
4. An installation window for WordPress should appear. Fill in all the fields correctly and then click on install. Now, when you visit your domain, you should be able to follow the WordPress installation instructions on-screen and connect to your database. For more details, please refer to https://webhostingpeople.in/tips/kb/install-wordpress-using-softaculous-in-cpanel/
5. You have now installed WordPress using the Softaculous App Installer in cPanel. You can now log in to the WordPress Admin Dashboard using the username and password that you have previously set. You can now manage your WordPress website from this Dashboard.

Choosing a Theme

WordPress provides thousands of themes, both free and premium. However, most of them are demo versions, and you would need to upgrade to the premium version to unlock all features. You need to purchase a suitable premium WordPress theme that suits your website and install it on your site. I have conducted some research and found that free versions of art portfolio themes lack compatibility and may cause issues over time. Additionally, many of the features may be restricted. I recommend purchasing a quality art portfolio theme that aligns better with your ideas. You can start searching for suitable themes at these theme developers:

• ThemeForest – https://themeforest.net/category/wordpress/creative?ref=wiredcanvas
• Themify – https://themify.me/
• Graph Paper Press – https://graphpaperpress.com/wordpress-themes/portfolio/
• ThemeZilla – http://www.themezilla.com/themes/

The below-mentioned themes are recommended art portfolio themes which might:

Emily – $59

Emily is a clean, elegant, and beautiful theme designed primarily for photographers. It is a contemporary choice for an art portfolio website with an unlimited number of galleries. This theme also suits individuals who have less confidence in WordPress as it is responsive and has extensive documentation.

Freelo – $59

If you are a freelancer, designer, or one of those creative individuals, Freelo WordPress theme is the appropriate choice. It provides a fresh, modern, and trendy design that will help you stand out from all the mundane portfolios out there.

Meteor – $49

Meteor is a well-designed beautiful WordPress theme suitable primarily for artists, arts and crafts, and portfolio websites. It allows you to choose different layout styles for your posts. It enables you to showcase paintings, illustrations, photographs, videos, and more.

Nico – $44

Nico WordPress theme is a well-designed art portfolio theme that includes a filterable portfolio with a grid layout. It enables you to display your work beautifully.

There are many more WordPress themes available for purchase, and you can search for beautiful themes from the top theme developers listed above.

WordPress Portfolio Plugins

• Portfolio Gallery – Photograph Gallery
• Gallery – Photograph Gallery – Image Gallery
• Portfolio
• WP Design Portfolio
• Centered or left-aligned layout
• Homepage options
• Customizable slider
• Aeolus Creative Portfolio
• Envira Gallery
• NextGen Gallery

Switch WordPress Theme

You have now chosen/purchased a beautiful theme, and the new theme needs to be switched with the current one. The new WordPress installation comes with a default theme. You need to switch this default theme to the new theme you have just purchased to customize your WordPress website.

1. Go to http://yourdomainname.com/wp-admin and enter the administrator username and password that you have previously set. You have now logged into the WordPress Dashboard as an Admin user.
2. You can now install the selected theme from the WordPress Admin Dashboard. Installing and activating a new theme would replace it with your default theme.

Your WordPress website is now installed with the selected theme, and you can start customizing and managing plugins. If you need any further assistance, please reach out to our support department.