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Kathy maintains the Solar Art Prize website for her aunt Pip Fletcher who is passionate about changing everyone's behaviour to save the planet.
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People’s Choice Prize 2026

The People’s Choice Prize for 2026 was won jointly so two artists will share the prize.

Svetlana Kendzhaeva

Wings wait for water

Acrylic on canvas

Against a background of flowers, a dove folds her wings around a drop of water which reflects the flowers like a kaleidoscope.
Wings wait for water, acrylic on canvas by i. Svetlana Kendzhaeva

Ellen Steyn

Tigers “Don’t let them disappear”

Acrylic on canvas

Tigers “Don’t let them disappear”, acrylic by ii. Ellen Steyn.
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Overall prizes, 2026 Solar Art Prize

1st Overall Prize

$6,000 voucher or $1,000 cash alternative

Plus 1 year RSASA membership

Libby Tozer

Unmet whispers.

Multimedia film.

A beach scene with blue clouds over a calm sea and empty sand, with a bush-studded sand dune in the foreground.
Unmet Whispers, multimedia film by Libby Tozer.

2nd Overall Prize

$5,000 voucher or $500 cash alternative

David Braun

Bin Chickens at Friend’s Gate.

Pen and ink drawing.

This detailed black and white drawing shows a congregation of ibis in the foreground beside exotic bushes. The midground is a paved path to a wrought iron fence and gate in front of nineteenth century brick walls which are an entrance to the Adelaide Botanic Gardens. In the background are trunks of tall gum trees.
Bin Chickens at Friends’ Gate, pen and ink drawing by David Braun.
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Section Prizes awarded in 2026 Solar Art Prize

Each prizewinner was awarded a voucher for $4,000 solar products or $100 cash alternative.

Climate Change section prize winner

Rachel Scholich

This mixed media piece of art resembles sand on a beach strewn with rubbish.
Trash or Treasure, a mixed media picture made of cuttlefish, drifted rubbish, and oil paint by Rachel Scholich.

People in action who help the environment section prize

or the actions people take to combat climate change

or  portraits of local people who take responsible action for combatting climate change

Monique van Eyk

A head and shoulders portrait of a man with a white moustache and beard wearing a simple cotton shirt and a broad brimmed hat, framed by eucalyptus leaves.
Phillip Boulden, oil painting by Monique van Eyk.

Wild Nature Environment section prize

Althea Holmes

Most of this painting is the white sand of a sand dune. Dead tree tops poke out of the top of the sand and in the distance the sand dune supports grass and more dead plants.
Encroaching Sands #11, acrylic and charcoal painting by Althea Holmes.

The Hanger’s Choice prize

Margaret Thomas

On recycled cardboard which still bears the printed instructions Glass with care This way up, most of the word Bottles, and Please recycle, is painted a head and shoulders portrait of a woman with shoulder length hair wearing glasses and speaking to someone on the left.
Pip’s Passion, a mixed media artwork by Margaret Thomas.
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Winners of 2026 Solar Art Prize announced

10 Merit prizes were awarded

Each winner received $100 Metro ticket and a book about climate change.

IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER

Chloe Bower

A landscape with stylized small plants in the foreground and flowers and trees in the midground with more trees growing in the background.
Sensing the coming of Change, hand-painted felted yarn on blanket fragment, by Chloe Bower.

Ralph Faggotter

Amongst dense green eucalypt leaves and flowers, a family of possums with distinct white markings all cling to branches and look at the viewer.
Family of Leadbeater’s possums, oil painting by Ralph Faggotter.

Wendy Jennings

The top left hand image shows a series of small water colour paintings connected in a concertina fashion. The remaining three images are examples of the paintings: April 1400 showing aboriginal people beside campfires in front of hills with small controlled fires on them; January 1900 showing a sheep farmer with a large bushfire in the hills; and January 2010 showing a plantation with a catastrophic bushfire in the hills.
History of fire in the Adelaide Hills, water colour and cotton by Wendy Jennings.

Eileen Kontakos

A woman's bare feet and calves stand on sandy ground beside some weeds. The remainder of the woman and her background are pixellated out.
Regeneration, oil on wood panel by Eileen Kontakos.

Bob Landt

A sun haloed in burning clouds presides over a landscape of dead tree trunks and bushes. People sit comfortably watching the spectacle of a burning pit of flames. One of the tourists stands closer, looking into the pit.
The Tourist, a water colour by Bob Landt.

Eileen Lubiana

An old dartboard has had the centre painted over so the bullseye is now a sun rising over the ocean, resembling the sun in the Australian Aboriginal flag. Around the rim it reads The time for action is today, or watch the beauty fade away. We hold the future in our hand to save this ravaged, sacred land.
Targets, a painting on bristle board by Eileen Lubiana.

Penny MacLaren

Head and shoulders of a man with grey hair and a white beard and moustache frowning to the side.
Passionate environmentalist Tim Jarvis AM, oil painting by Penny MacLaren.

Guiseppe Matteo Pappalardo

Four images of a series of 30 square white ceramic tiles which have foliage painted on them in blue along with their scientific names. One of the tiles is red with a stylized white hourglass on it.
Flora Extinct: Botanical loss in Australia, ceramic tile set by Guiseppe Matteo Pappalardo.

Carol Scholich

People in a fishing boat look the other way as a dolphin rises out of the water, its mouth open in distress, with a car tire around its neck.
Tyred Dolphin, a painting in acrylic by Carol Scholich

Tim Shaw

An egg-shaped glass vase boldly colored yellow and red with foliage around a waterhole.
Watch and Act, blown and carved glass by Tim Shaw.
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Overall prize 2025

Overall winner of the Solar Art Prize-Caring For Our Planet exhibition South Australia 2025, winning voucher for solar products to the value of $8,000 plus one year RSASA membership.

David Braun

The Return

Pen drawing

After the fire and months of regrowth the trees are coming to life and return begins.

A black and white ink drawing of trees with leaves sprouting directly from their trunks, with a flock of small birds beside them. In the foreground one large tree looks completely dead but is surrounded by grass and bushes.
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Second Overall Prize 2025

Winner of the Second Overall Prize in the Solar Art Prize-Caring For Our Planet exhibition South Australia 2025, winning voucher for $6,000 of solar products

Tim Shaw

Climate Change

Blown and carved glass

All life comes from the sun and glass collects its rays, radiating hope and raising our
environmental awareness to protect our beautiful planet Earth.

Pieces of broken glass grade from purples and blues to yellows and reds.
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Wild Nature Prize 2025

Winner of the Wild Nature Prize for Beauty of the Natural Environment in the Solar Art Prize-Caring For Our Planet exhibition South Australia 2025, winning vouchers for solar products to the value of $5,000

Rob Morrison

Earth, Water, Air–Extinction Cycle

Brooches in sterling silver, Casuarina seed ’cones’ garnet

Forty Australian mammal species are extinct, dozens of fish species are
threatened & three insect species vanish every week

Three sterling silver brooches have been coloured in golds and deep browns. One is a beetle, another a fish, and the third is an echidna.
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Section 1 Prize 2025

Winner of the Section 1 Prize for results or causes or satire or caricatures about climate change in the Solar Art Prize-Caring For Our Planet exhibition South Australia 2025, winner of voucher for $4,000 worth of solar products

Carolyn Corletto

Just A Memory

One inch ceramic vessels hand-painted on balsa & board with gold foil

These miniature pots depicting endangered SA plants are arranged into the sentence
“You will never know the true value of something until it is just a memory”

Tiny pots glazed with images of endangered SA plants are arranged on shelves so that their initials (if you knew them) would spell "You will never know the true value of something until it is just a memory."
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Section 2 Prize 2025

Winner of the Section 2 Prize for People Who Help The Environment in the Solar Art Prize-Caring For Our Planet exhibition South Australia 2025, winning vouchers to the value of $4,000 solar products.

Elena Budden

Katherine

Oil on canvas

Plants inspire her to study & communicate herbal skin care free from chemicals (ed.)
Environmentally conscious hair stylist she opts for natural alternatives, biodegradable,
non-toxic ingredients, recyclable packaging

Merging with a background of flowers, plants, and people by water, a woman wearing a scarf over grey hair looks to her right.