Client Spotlight:
The Artist Series
About The Client
The Artist Series:
Building Better Online Homes for Wickenburg’s Creative Community
When BLT Marketing & Design partnered with the Wickenburg Art Center & Gallery, our work went beyond creating a new logo and website. We had an opportunity to get to know the artists, photographers, sculptors, woodworkers, and makers who help make Wickenburg’s creative community so distinctive.
The Wickenburg Art Center represents more than 200 members working across painting, photography, sculpture, woodworking, jewelry, pottery, fiber art, mixed media, and other creative disciplines. Its new website gave the organization a stronger public presence while providing a central place to promote exhibitions, events, classes, and featured artists.
But an Art Center profile can only tell part of an artist’s story.
From an Artist Profile to an Artist-Owned Website
After completing the Wickenburg Art Center website, we offered Art Club members a special opportunity to create their own custom WordPress websites.
The idea was simple: give individual artists an affordable, professional online home that they control.
Social media is useful, but posts quickly disappear into the feed. A dedicated website gives an artist a permanent place to organize their work, share their story, promote exhibitions, connect with collectors, and build an online presence that is not dependent on a social media platform.
These were not one-size-fits-all portfolio sites with the artist’s name swapped at the top. Each website was designed around the artist’s work, personality, goals, and preferred way of connecting with potential buyers.
Meet the Artists
Verne Rainey – Western Ranch Photos
Verne Rainey is a rancher and fine art photographer whose images are grounded in the Western life he knows firsthand. His website organizes decades of photography into galleries including Ranch Life, Competition, Working, Cowboy Kids, Emotion, and Vehicles & Landscapes.
The result is a focused fine art platform that captures the people, traditions, grit, humor, and quiet moments of the working West. westernranchphotos.com/
Laura Gates – Laura Gates Fine Art
Laura Gates creates nature-inspired artwork in watercolor, oil, acrylic, and mixed media. Her paintings explore landscapes, waterfalls, canyon scenes, florals, wildlife, and the changing effects of natural light.
Her website was created to give each medium room to breathe while also providing a central shop for available original artwork. lauragatesfineart.com/
Cecilia McGuire – CM Arts
Award-winning Western artist Cecilia McGuire works in both bronze sculpture and painting. Inspired by horses and the Western lifestyle, her work captures movement, expression, character, and the quiet power of a single moment.
Her website brings her bronzes, paintings, awards, exhibitions, and artistic story together in a clean presentation built to grow alongside her body of work. cmarts.net/
Claire Perkins – The Artful Alchemist
Claire Perkins creates one-of-a-kind mixed media mosaics that transform discarded, weathered, and ordinary materials into artwork filled with symbolism, personality, and story.
The Artful Alchemist website introduces visitors to Claire’s distinctive creative philosophy and organizes her work into collections including Spirit Keepers, Old Bones, Things With Wings, Animalia, and Natural Elements. It also gives her a platform for writing and promoting her book, Fallen. artfulalchemist.com/
Lisa Saines – Lisa Saines Photography
Lisa Saines is an award-winning photographer whose work is rooted in honesty, intuition, and artistic intent. Her primary collections explore landscapes, Western life, and waterfalls, with images available as custom fine art prints on paper, metal, or canvas.
Her site also gives Lisa room to share the stories behind the photographs, turning each image into more than a finished composition. lisasainesphotography.com/
Barry Richardson – Barry Richardson Wood Design
Barry Richardson creates one-of-a-kind wood turnings, vessels, carvings, sculptures, furniture, and wall pieces. Working with reclaimed local wood whenever possible, he allows the grain, movement, and natural character of the material to guide each piece.
His website provides separate galleries for his different disciplines while creating a clear path for collectors to ask about availability, commissions, shipping, and new work. barryrichardsonwooddesign.com/
Sally Clark – Sally Clark Fine Art
Sally Clark is a pastel artist known for expressive portraits of people, horses, dogs, birds, primates, wildlife, and sea life. Her work captures more than physical detail – it reveals personality, presence, emotion, and spirit.
Her website was designed around the strength of those images, with dedicated galleries for her pastel work as well as acrylic ink and pencil drawings. sallyclarkfineart.com/
Pamela Kraft – Pamela Kraft Fine Art
Pamela Kraft is an award-winning artist whose paintings reflect the light, color, people, animals, plants, and landscapes of the American West.
Dividing her time between Arizona and Wyoming, Pamela brings an authentic understanding of Western land and life to her work. Her website organizes an extensive collection into approachable categories while highlighting current paintings and recent accomplishments. pamelakraftfineart.com/
Pamela Plummer – Pamela Plummer Photos
Pamela Plummer is a multidisciplinary artist whose creative career has included painting, stone sculpture, abstract work, and fine art photography.
Her website showcases Western photography, florals, landscapes, still life, cars, trucks, boats, and new work. It also helps visitors understand that her images can be reproduced, mounted, framed, and shipped in a format selected for their home or collection. pamelaplummerphotos.com/
More Than an Online Portfolio
A strong artist website should do more than display a grid of images.
It should:
- Introduce the person behind the work
- Present artwork clearly and professionally
- Help collectors understand the artist’s style and process
- Organize large collections without overwhelming the visitor
- Provide clear contact and purchasing information
- Promote exhibitions, awards, new work, and announcements
- Perform properly on phones, tablets, and desktop screens
- Give the artist an online platform they actually own
Most importantly, the website should feel like the artist.
Some of these websites are bold and distinctly Western. Others are quiet, contemporary, colorful, textured, or deeply personal. The design changes because the work changes. That is exactly how it should be.
A Stronger Creative Community, One Website at a Time
This project has become one of the most rewarding extensions of our partnership with the Wickenburg Art Center & Gallery.
Each new website helps an individual artist take greater control of their professional presence. Together, they also create a larger online network showcasing the depth and variety of art being produced in and around Wickenburg.
We are proud of every site in the Artist Series, and we are not finished yet.
Is Your Artwork Ready for Its Own Online Home?
BLT Marketing & Design creates custom WordPress websites for painters, photographers, sculptors, woodworkers, jewelers, mixed media artists, galleries, and independent creatives.
Whether you are establishing your first professional website or replacing something outdated, we can build a site that presents your work clearly, tells your story, and gives collectors an easy way to connect with you.
Your artwork deserves more than a social media feed. Let’s give it a home.