We are excited to announce that Liz List is the winner of the 2026 Forks, Knives, & Spoonbills art contest for her piece, Gathered Around the Plate! This statewide competition, hosted by the South Carolina Wildlife Federation, invited local artists to design unique artwork featuring the six imperiled wildlife species highlighted in this year’s conservation dinner series. This year’s featured species include the Eastern whip-poor-will, golden-winged warbler, green heron, prairie warbler, yellow-billed cuckoo, and of course, the roseate spoonbill, whose conservation story inspired this dinner series.

Thank you to everyone who submitted their creative work and helped make this contest our largest so far! We sincerely appreciate every artist who participated. The imaginative ways you brought this year’s featured species to life are truly inspiring.

Winning Entry

About the winning image:

Because I work from photos, half the challenge is to be in the right place at the right time to capture an image that I can transform into a painting. The other half of the challenge is also the fun part. Painting often takes me right back to those precious encounters with birds and nature. My love of birds began when I was in the 8th grade and first experienced bird watching with my science teacher. I am especially fond of Canada Geese because they remind me of childhood trips to Horicon Marsh in Wisconsin to view the geese in migration.

When it comes to painting, I am fascinated by reflections and inspired by textures. In my “real life” job, I teach art at our state school for the blind, and much of my work involves using tactile materials that enable my students to experience art through their sense of touch. When I paint, I like to challenge myself to represent textures such as water, feathers, wood, and rocks simply through brushstrokes and layers of color. The common ground between my career as a teacher and my ambitions as an artist is my love of learning. Each new painting offers me another opportunity to grow, and this contest provided a challenge to consider the bird images as part of a design apart from their natural habitat. In this case, I chose to represent them gathered around a plate.

Our top selections are featured below.

Banner image credit: Roseate Spoonbill by Gretchen Locy.