Website-Feedback Needed

Kaustav

Hi,

I made a lot of changes to my website: https://www.kaustavmfineart.com/ 

I wanted to know a few more things:

1. Shall I delete the abstract art related sections?
2. Feedback regarding info of my paintings
3. Any painting that anyone finds irrelevant
4. Shall I remove the sold ones?
5. Changes to social media
6. Suggest changes in other areas
7. Shall I limit the number of photos on websites? I will continue to post on social media though
   
8. I don't know how to link PayPal but even if I can, is this necessary?
9. Any other suggestions are also welcome
   

Thanks
Kaustav

anwesha

I still haven't looked very closely, but till now i see that the sizes in the still life section are not mentioned for all. Also i feel that it looks best if the format for the information provided is kept constant through out, keeping in mind, the inverted commas, full stops, brackets, etc. Keep it same for all. Also i think its best to mention "inches" or the sign for it when mentioning the size.

and "where my heart is" is just for a dollar? 

anwesha

A question for all as i'm confused. Is plural of "still life" also "still life"? or is it "still lifes" or "lives". I will need to change the word in my website accordingly. Thanks

PaulB

anwesha said:

A question for all as i'm confused. Is plural of "still life" also "still life"? or is it "still lifes" or "lives". I will need to change the word in my website accordingly. Thanks

I avoid the issue and refer to "still life paintings", as I don't know how to correctly pluralize it in a way that doesn't sound wrong.

PaulB

I would eliminate the abstract work, but only because I keep reading about consistency being important.  All your other work is instantly recognizable as yours, the abstracts are not.  To me, that is, and I am also assuming that the representational work is your focus.

I say keep the sold paintings, it sends a nice message, and we still get to look at them.

BOB73

@anwesha , @PaulB it's like "safe" as in a vault. The plural is still-lifes with or without the hyphen but in some writings I have found that still life is its own plural like "deer". I have found through technical writing that the reader is not always "up" on the proper grammar and spelling of the content and for clarity and consistency have changed the rules to avoid confusing the reader who is almost assuredly confused to begin with if he/she resorts to reading my works to gain understanding.

BOB73

@Kaustav I would not delete any sold or abstract paintings. Simply label them sold or unavailable. PayPal is a trusted payment method on the internet and you would be wise to offer that option. There may come a time when you have to stop adding new content without removing old pictures but I think you are a long way from that. 

Julianna

@Kaustav   I can't offer you any help but just want to say these fine people have helped me enormously!  So generous with their time.  Good luck!  I had nothing 6 days ago and now I have a functioning website and I am on Instagram - a miracle!

tassieguy

@anwesha, I think @BOB73 is probably correct. "Still lifes" would function grammatically in the same way as "locked safes". Isn"t English weird!  

In respect to your website, @Kaustav, I agree with PaulB about keeping the sold paintings on the site - it sends a nice message. Prospective buyers are reassured that they are not the only ones who find the paintings worthy and tempting.  

Boudicca

Hi @Kaustav, some feedback:

You have used maybe half a dozen different fonts throughout your website, I would suggest that you reduce that down to one or two. I would suggest a sans serif font like helvetica or something similar.

Change still lives to just still life.

Some of your paintings are watermarked with a copyright, some are not. I suggest you do one or the other for visual consistency. (As an aside, artists own the copyright on their paintings whether of not they mark it as such, if someone wants to illegally use an image you have created they just need to crop it out so personally I wouldn’t bother with the watermark as it detracts from the painting)

Sizes- not all paintings have the size listed in the description, and where it is mentioned I can’t tell if it’s inches or cm.

Social media- I think Facebook, YouTube, and instagram are plenty.

Introductory statement on home page.
Needs to be in a bigger font and take up more space on the page.

“Kaustav Mukherjee is an Indian artist who specializes in landscape painting and portraiture. While, his landscapes are rustic realist scenes, his portraits are modern and traditional simultaneously. Kaustav also loves non-representational abstract paintings that are embroidered with fluidity of vivacious colors and form”
I know it’s pretty hard to talk about yourself and big yourself up in public, so I’ve done it for you.

”Based in (wherever you are based), Kaustav Mukherjee travels throughout the Indian sub-continent capturing the textures,colours, and timelessness that embodies the social and cultural soul of his homeland.
 As a professional artist who specialises in landscape, portraiture and still life painting, Kaustav has the ability to translate a vast expanse onto canvas whilst communicating his intimate connection to place. His portraits and still life paintings further explore the modernity of the everyday within the traditional framework of realist fine art oil painting.
When so moved, Kaustav expands his artistic expression into abstraction, weaving colour and form to create vivid works of art.

PaulB

@Boudicca, wow, you're good at this.

tassieguy

You could write these for a living, @Boudicca. Fabulous! 

Kaustav

Thanks everyone...I need to go through your feedback in a more focused way and make the required changes.

Kaustav

Wikipedia states: A still life (plural: still lifes) but I guess still lives is also used for plural. I have it in an English oil painting book.

BOB73

RE: "English Oil Painting Book" They are experts on painting not grammar. Good work @Boudicca on the textual aspects of the WEBPAGE. I prefer "Times New Roman" as a font it's easier for my old eyes to read but your suggested fonts will work well too.

Boudicca

My thinking regarding the fonts were that the surfaces of Kaustav’s paintings are quite textured and lively so to use a strong clean san serif font reduces any visual competition between the text and the artwork, and keep the focus on his paintings.

Boudicca

The way to get around the plural dilemma is to have the galleries labelled: Portraiture, Landscape, Still Life, Abstract.

BOB73

That would be better than "used bottles and pottery"

Kaustav

anwesha said:

I still haven't looked very closely, but till now i see that the sizes in the still life section are not mentioned for all. Also i feel that it looks best if the format for the information provided is kept constant through out, keeping in mind, the inverted commas, full stops, brackets, etc. Keep it same for all. Also i think its best to mention "inches" or the sign for it when mentioning the size.

and "where my heart is" is just for a dollar? 

@[email protected] I did some standardization in the description and need to do more. Sizes are not uniform but it is being communicated that they are small pieces. The standardized price range will give the buyers an idea as well. Sizes of the larger paintings have been communicated.

"where my heart is" is for US$ 1,020/- I guess it's too damn cheap with shipping and framing included.

Forgiveness

This is only a suggestion for typeface, I used to work in advertising and publishing, and we most often used "Garramont" typeface as it was so widely used. It was easiest and fast to read and has artistic flair, this was for "paper printing", but I'm not up to date with computer type. It never distracted away from the artworks, it complemented quite nicely.

anwesha

Kaustav said:

"where my heart is" is for US$ 1,020/- I guess it's too damn cheap with shipping and framing included.

@Kaustav : at first it looked like $1.020 rather than $1,020 , that's why i mentioned.

Kaustav

@PaulB and @BOB73 To be quite honest I don't feel like deleting my abstract work at all. I'm comfortable with both languages of expression. I want others to know what I've found after years of searching. I just cannot delete that in second. I like abstract art. If some buyer finds abstract boring they can just move away to other things.

Kaustav

@Boudicca Thanks for such a detailed feedback. I need to look at them and see how to make the changes. This needs some time. Will contact you later on this.