He also gave up his teaching position to concentrate on painting, and his reputation continued to expand, winning the Purchase Award at the Mid-America Annual Art Show in 1951 and holding a well-received one-man show at the Associated American Artists Gallery in New York in 1952.

He also received the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Hassam, Speicher, Betts and Symonds Art Purchase Award in 2010, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Grant in 1993 and the National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship Grant in 1989.

With Boston photographer Ben E. Watkins she won the Purchase Award for the photo/text collaboration, "They Flatter Almost Recognize".

Bass has received numerous awards including a National Society of Arts and Letters award, a Franklin Mint Award of Excellence and a First Purchase Award in the 1983 exhibition "Realism Today" from the Evansville Museum.

Known for his stone mobius "Celtic Knots" and curvilinear shapes, T Barny has won various awards such as "Best Body of Work", "Award of Excellence", "Editor's Choice Award" and from the California Museum of Art a "Purchase Award".

The Associates of Brand Library & Art Center bestowed their 1975 Purchase Award on Brown's "Suburb" and the 1977 Purchase Award on his "Opposite but Equal".

In 1966, he received the Purchase Award from the University of Illinois in 1966, and he was featured in New Talent U.S.A. by Art in America.

Mr. Gilhooley has received the Frank C. Wright Memorial Award for Graphic Art from the American Artists Professional League and the Purchase Award from Auburn University.

Leonard Dinardo was awarded the Newark Museum's Purchase Award for his blown-glass bowl entitled "Ain't No Time to Wonder Why."

Other awards include First Place at The National Orange Show's 2010 All-California Juried Art Exhibition for his still-life of an orange and The National Orange Show's Board of Director's Purchase Award.