What is the Salon Art Prize?

Fifteen years ago, we launched a little competition to celebrate plein air painters. Nobody imagined it would become one of the most prestigious art prizes in the world. In honor of the legendary French Salon, PleinAir Salon was designed to help artists elevate the quality of their work by competing for top prizes.

Since then, the PleinAir Salon has awarded nearly $530,000 in all-cash prizes to painters across every genre and medium. With 19 categories like landscape, figures, still life, and pleinair, there was something for everyone. 

But something has nagged us for years.

We named it the PleinAir Salon because it was started by PleinAir magazine, but having “PleinAir” in the name was confusing a lot of people. Studio artists, figure painters, portrait painters, still life painters…they assumed it wasn’t for them, so they rarely entered. They left awards on the table that were rightfully theirs to compete for.

So we’re fixing it.

Starting with the 16th Annual Competition in 2026, we’re renaming the competition: The Salon Art Prize.

Same competition. Same prestige. Now with a name that finally tells the whole story.

We’re also increasing the total prize purse from $50,000 to $65,000, adding a brand-new $15,000 grand prize specifically for studio painters.

Click here to view all the awards. 

Why We Do the Salon Art Prize

Years ago our founder and publisher, Eric Rhoads, was visiting Elaine and Peter Adamas at the California Art Club, which is over 100 years old. They told him the story about how the club had become old and sleepy and near death when they came into membership. When elected to be the president and director of the club, they realized that one of the reasons the club was not succeeding is because the quality of art had fallen enough that collectors and buyers were no longer drawn to the art club shows.

The Adamses made a goal to elevate the quality of their shows and of the membership of the club. They determined that an art competition was the best way. Though it took several years, by having juried shows with competent judges, the overall quality of paintings and sculpture in the club rose to a higher level of excellence. They discovered that when people compete against other artists, they work toward being their best and elevating their own quality. Of course today the quality of the show is very high.

When Eric started PleinAir magazine, he noticed the same thing. There were a few good painters and a lot of substandard painters. To many, the term “plein air” came to stand for low quality, because so many were doing it outdoors but with poor quality. The goal of the PleinAir Salon (no called the Salon Art Prize) is to help artists elevate quality.

The result has been spectacular. The difference in quality of paintings entered today versus the quality when we started, is night and day. Today the majority of paintings entered are high quality, and those who are entering are motivated to keep trying to win, and thus, watching what wins and working to elevate their own quality.

PleinAir magazine cares deeply about its reputation, which is why we engage the highest quality professional judges. This keeps us from having a role in the selection of winners of the monthly competition. We are trying to keep driving quality forward and offer artists recognition for their hard work of developing great paintings and striving to get better every year. It’s also why we launched conferences, video training and more, to continually elevate quality. It’s also why we feature plein air and non plein air, because most artists do both. Therefore we want to encourage excellence in studio painting, and in the many subjects, styles and approaches artists pursue. We don’t wish to lock out entries. Artists who are working to elevate their quality in many areas of interest deserve recognition too.

12th Annual PleinAir salon Online Art Competition Grand Prize Winner Kimball Geisler holding his $15,000 check