Start a project

Online gallery and private archive for an artist

المعرض الفني

A permanent home for an artist's body of work: a private archive on the owner's computer, and an online gallery generated from it that shows only the works chosen for publication, watermarked.

A watermarked painting of roses and white blossom in a silver frame, with neighbouring works either side, and its label below
The same painting on iPhone, with its label and previous and next controls
Screens of the live visitor gallery, which its owner approved for public display. Every painting shown is an original work, watermarked as published. The artist's name is hidden in these screens. The rooms in View in a Room are AI-generated settings and are not shown here.
Client
An artist
Our role
Design and development
Services
Status
Live; not yet promoted

The brief

The aim was a permanent record of every painting and exhibition, documented in English and Arabic, and a calm way to share chosen works online without exposing originals, private notes or unpublished pieces.

The archive runs on the owner's own computer and works offline. A separate, checked copy of the visitor gallery is published as a static website. It is live, at the owner's request not yet promoted.

What we built

An archive dashboard for documenting works, and a visitor gallery generated from it: all works by collection, a corridor through the years, the exhibition history and the artist's page. Before every upload, the published copy is audited automatically to confirm nothing private is included.

  1. A watermarked painting of roses and white blossom in a silver frame, with neighbouring works either side
    The same painting on iPhone, with previous and next controls

    1 of 4

    One painting at a time

    Each work stands on its own wall, uncropped and watermarked, with its title and year. Visitors step to the next work or view it in a room.

  2. All works on desktop: a collection selector, search, and framed paintings from the Garden of Colour
    All works on iPhone

    2 of 4

    The whole body of work

    All 44 works, by collection, as a journey through framed paintings or as a simple index, with search by title, year or medium.

  3. The Passage of Time: a lit corridor with a doorway for each decade

    3 of 4

    Through the years

    The Passage of Time is a corridor of paintings in the order they were painted, with a doorway for every decade.

  4. The exhibitions archive on desktop as a timeline of light
    The exhibitions archive on iPhone

    4 of 4

    A life of exhibitions

    Thirty-one exhibitions from 1993 to 2026, drawn as a timeline of light and filterable by decade, year and place.

Everything in it

  • All works

    44 works in 6 collections, browsed as a journey or an index, with search.

  • The Passage of Time

    A corridor of paintings in the order they were painted, one doorway per decade.

  • Exhibitions

    31 exhibitions from 1993 to 2026, by decade, year or place.

  • View in a Room

    A painting shown at scale in photorealistic room settings, which are AI-generated and chosen by the owner.

  • English and Arabic

    The whole gallery in both languages, with Arabic laid out right to left.

  • QR codes and labels

    Printable labels with a QR code tied to each work's permanent ID, for exhibitions.

  • Archive dashboard

    Documentation in English and Arabic, and a reviewed batch import for photographs.

  • Safe publishing

    An allow-list and an automatic audit before every upload; drafts and private fields never leave the computer.

How we approached it

  • Private first

    Originals, records and notes stay on the owner's computer. Only chosen works, in watermarked copies, go online.

  • The art leads

    Every painting is shown uncropped and at the centre, with quiet labels and room to look.

  • Nothing is ever lost

    Original photographs are kept exactly as received, with permanent IDs, backups and checks.

Product demo

Placeholder. A short product demo will be added when one is recorded and approved.

Technology

Application
Node.js 22, SQLite, HTML, CSS and JavaScript
Publishing
Static site on Cloudflare Pages (free tier)
Quality
Automated unit and end-to-end tests, Publishing audit before every upload

Good to know

  • The online gallery is live but not yet promoted or listed by search engines, at the owner's request.
  • Unpublished works, originals and private records never leave the owner's computer.

Services used

Build something similar

Tell us what you have in mind. We’ll ask a few questions and suggest a sensible way to build it.

Start a Project