Over the last few weeks I’ve been refreshing and redesigning large parts of my website – updating the homepage, refining the layout, improving the graphics and thinking much more intentionally about the overall visitor experience.
This short video gives a quick scroll-through of how the homepage now looks in 2026 and some of the recent updates that have been added across the site.
One of the biggest things I’ve been focusing on recently is the visitor journey – what someone sees when they first land on my website, how the different homepage sections flow together, and how to provide the right balance of information, visuals and calls to action without overwhelming the experience.
As my artwork collection has expanded over the years, I’ve wanted the website to evolve alongside it.
When I first launched my website back in 2019, it was a very basic drag-and-drop template site with limited customisation options.
At the time, the goal was simply to get my artwork online and create somewhere people could browse my paintings and buy prints.
Since then, the whole website has gradually evolved as I’ve learnt more about:
Being hands-on throughout the entire process has been a huge learning experience and has completely changed how I think about presenting artwork online.
Today, the site is much more than just an online shop – it’s designed to recreate the experience of discovering my artwork at one of my exhibitions.
One of the biggest things that has influenced my website recently has actually been exhibiting my work in person over the last few years. I’ve exhibited in a range of formats – from large solo exhibitions to professional art fairs to solo pop-up shops to charity pop-up events to makers markets.
My goal when building my art business was to try out different event types, venues and locations to help me test and learn about the best ways to reach people and build an audience. I’ve now exhibited in London, Norwich and Manchester in the UK, as well as New York and Tokyo.
When people visit one of my exhibitions, they naturally ask similar questions:
Having hundreds of those conversations in person has given me a much better understanding of what people actually want to know when they engage with artwork.
That’s something I never would have fully understood back in 2019 before I started exhibiting. A lot of the newer additions to my website layout and design now come directly from that experience.
For example, I recently added a new biography section to the homepage – similar to the artist biography panels you’d see at an exhibition. The goal was to immediately give new visitors some context about who I am, what my painting style is about and the story behind the work.
I’ve also embedded videos across all of my product pages so visitors can actually watch the paintings being created while browsing the artwork itself.
Because my painting style is heavily inspired by Jackson Pollock-style action painting, the process behind the artwork is a huge part of the finished piece.
The movement, energy and spontaneity of the paint splashes are central to the whole identity of my work, so it felt important to bring that process directly into the website experience.
Rather than just viewing a print or product in isolation, visitors can now actually watch the real artwork being painted.
Another thing I’ve become much more aware of recently is how differently people experience art in real life compared to online.
At an exhibition, people don’t just stand in front of a painting from one angle.
They walk around it.
They step closer.
They examine the texture.
They look at the corners and details.
They view it from side angles to see the layers of paint and the physical surface of the canvas.
That was something I realised my website photography wasn’t previously capturing strongly enough.
So earlier this year I photographed many of my original paintings again using much closer, more unusual and more immersive angles – including close-up texture shots, side-on views and detailed crop images that better recreate the feeling of physically viewing the artwork in person.
A huge part of my work is the fact that it’s all hand-painted using real materials and real physical paint splashes layered across the canvas.
I wanted the website photography to better communicate that tactile quality and reinforce that these aren’t digital artworks or AI-generated images – they’re real physical paintings (that take dozens of hours each!) with texture, movement and human energy behind them.
Over the last few months I’ve also spent a lot of time improving the product pages themselves. That includes:
A lot of this came from researching other artists’ websites, studying e-commerce best practice and gradually developing an instinct for the type of imagery and information that helps people feel confident buying art online.
The goal has been to make the experience feel more immersive, professional and informative without becoming cluttered or overwhelming.
I’ve also added additional currencies to make international ordering easier, including Japanese Yen ahead of my recent exhibition trip to Japan – where I’ve now received my first order in Yen through the website.
Some of the recent updates across the site include:
One of my additions is the new exhibition photo gallery carousel on the homepage, featuring photographs from my exhibitions and live events over the last few years.
This helps immediately place the artwork into a real-world context and gives visitors a much better sense of scale, atmosphere and personality behind the brand.
One thing I’ve learnt from building my website over the years is that it’s never really “finished”. As my artwork evolves, the website evolves alongside it.
The more experience I gain through exhibitions, customer conversations, filming painting videos and building new collections, the more ideas I have for improving how the artwork is presented online.
Being an artist today involves so much more than simply creating paintings.
There’s the branding, storytelling, photography, videos, design, marketing and customer experience behind it all too.
And over the last few years I’ve genuinely enjoyed learning and improving across all of those different areas alongside the artwork itself.
You can explore the refreshed website homepage at bykerwin.com (viewing on desktop gives the full experience).
Below: you can see how my first ever website homepage looked, from my first site between 2019-2021. Next to it is the shop page of my current site – you can see how much more professional-looking and vibrant the current design is!
My full range of Jackson Pollock-inspired acrylic pop art paintings can be viewed at bykerwin.com – the originals and prints of these are available to purchase, with worldwide delivery. You can also follow my art progress on Instagram and Facebook.
