march pleinair salon $50,000 online art competition

The PleinAir Salon Art Competition has been awarding cash prizes and promoting artists for 12 years. In the spirit of the French Salon created by the Academie des Beaux-Arts in Paris, this annual competition, with 12 monthly cycles, leading to the annual PleinAir Salon winners, is designed to stimulate artistic growth through competition. The competition rewards artists with over $50,000 in cash prizes and exposure of their work, with the winning painting featured on the cover of PleinAir magazine.

Winners in each monthly competition may receive recognition and exposure through PleinAir magazine’s print magazine, e-newsletters, and social media. Winners of each competition will also be entered into the annual competition that is awarded each spring.

The PleinAir Salon $50,000 Art Competition is a monthly online competition that culminates into the Annual Competition each spring. Our monthly competitions consist of 19 categories in a variety of subject matter and mediums. Artists can enter as many paintings as they want, in as many categories as they want.

Each month we award $2,000 to the First, Second and Third Place Winners, and the People's Choice Award winner and select a winner for each category. All of these monthly winners are then entered into the running for the Annual Awards held at the Plein Air Convention & Expo in the spring. In addition, we highlight an honorable mention winner in each category, and all winners are included in promotion through PleinAir Magazine’s print, digital and social media.

The Grand Prize winner of the Annual Competition will receive a check for $15,000 and their winning painting will be featured on the cover of PleinAir magazine. We award an additional $6,500 to the annual award winners and all will be featured in PleinAir magazine’s print, digital and social media.

Because this competition is created by PleinAir magazine, which features not only plein air paintings, but also studio paintings, all types of paintings are eligible and do not need to have been completed in plein air. As we know, many studio paintings start with plein air sketches, and many plein air painters paint figures and still life. Our interest is in rewarding great paintings.

PleinAirSalon.com/connect