2024 Members Only Competition

Get Noticed!

All members of the Portrait Society of America are eligible to enter the 20th annual Members Only Competition for your chance to see your work featured in the pages of International Artist magazine, The Art of the Portrait Journal, and the Portrait Society of America website and social media pages.

The Members Only Competition, held annually, is open to all Portrait Society members in good standing. Each fall, up to five categories are offered, and members can submit up to one artwork per category. All work must be your own original design and concept, created independently, completed in the last three years and have never won an award in any previous art competition. All media is accepted in each category including oil, pastel, watercolor, graphite, sculpture, etc. No electronic/computer generated or altered artwork, work done in a class, workshop or under supervision is eligible.

Competition Timetable:

Application Opens: August 19, 2024

Online Entry Deadline: November 4, 2024

Winner Notification: December 17, 2024

Categories:

Commissioned Portrait

Non-Commissioned Portrait

Outside the Box

Still-Life

Animals as the Subject

Cost:

Participants can enter one piece of their work in one or more of the five categories. For example, an artist may enter one work in the Outside the Box category and another work in the Commissioned Portrait category. There is an entry fee of $40 per category (1 entry per category). The entry fee is non-refundable and must accompany your submission.

Guidelines:

Entry is by digital file and uploaded through the online entry form.
All work must be your own original design and concept, created independently, and completed in the last three years (since January 2021).
Never won an award in any previous art competition.
No electronic/computer generated or altered artwork, work done in a class, workshop or under supervision will be accepted.
Members may enter work in more than one of the five distinct categories.
All media is accepted in each category including oil, pastel, watercolor, graphite, sculpture, etc.
Images should ONLY be of the artwork. Do not include matting, frame, etc. in the image.
Save each file in JPG format, no larger than 3 megabytes each (resolution setting no larger than 300 dpi.) Label files in the following format: artists last name, first initial, and category. For example: Smith-J-commissioned.jpg

Awards and Recognition:

Top award winners will be chosen for each of the five categories. The First Place winners in each category will have the option to receives Holding History, an exact museum quality reproduction of a John Singer Sargent palette along with complimentary video illustrating the path of the palette from Sargent's Tite Street studio in London to Everett Raymond Kinstler's Studio in Connecticut, or the option to receive complimentary tuition to attend in-person or virtually at The Art of the Portrait conference in Washington, D.C. on May 8-11, 2025. Winners will also be acknowledged in The Art of the Portrait section of International Artist magazine, and all winners will be recognized on the Portrait Society of America’s website and in the Portrait Society’s The Art of the Portrait journal.