Thank you to all of the amazing artists who submitted their work for the Zilker Botanical Garden’s 2025 Prehistoric Art Contest! 🎨 After much deliberation, our judges have selected 3 winners, who have been notified via email. We are so excited to share the winning pieces!
Category: Best In Show (All Ages)Â
Artist: Courtney Bernard Â
Title of Artwork: Digging LifeÂ
Find this piece of artwork on postcards in the Garden’s gift shop!
Artist Statement: “Digging Life” is an exploration of time, nature, and discovery, rooted in the Cretaceous period over 66 million years ago. This watercolor and ink painting layers elements of the natural world with the mysteries that lie beneath us. May we reflect on the past while celebrating the beauty of the present, encouraging us all to keep unearthing the stories that shape our world.
Medium: Watercolor and Ink on Paper
Category: Children’s Winner (Ages 3-18)
Artist: Samantha SantosÂ
Title of Artwork: Dinosaurs at Sunset
Artist Statement: These dinosaurs are my favorite of the Cretaceous period. And the plants and flowers show their habitat. It shows sand hills and forest and a water source so the dinosaurs, the pachycephalosaurus and protohadros, have a water source. The Texas pterosaur flies with a fish in its mouth.
Medium: Pencil and Marker
Category: Adult Winner (18+)
Artist: Lindsey KingÂ
Title of Artwork: Quetzalcoatlus Has Such A Gigantic Weird Head That It Looks Like A Prank Pulled By Mother Nature
Artist Statement: Pterosaurs (which are not dinosaurs) are my favorite animals and wouldn’t you know it? Some people think Quetzalcoatlus is still flying around somewhere in Texas! It’s not, and that’s a shame because I’d definitely want to hug one in real life if I could get a guarantee that it wouldn’t just impale me on its freakishly huge beak. Therefore I decided to paint a Quetzalcoatlus looking up at the rain, with spicebushes in the foreground.
Medium: watercolor, marker, acrylic
2025 Entries
Ages 3-6
Ages 7-12
Adult 18+
