Finalists Announced For Bethesda Painting Awards

Eight finalists have been announced for the coveted Bethesda Painting Awards, a juried art competition that will award $10,000 to the winning painter. 

The seventh annual competition honors regional painters from Maryland, Washington, D.C., and Virginia, and local finalists include artists from Chevy Chase, Takoma Park and Rockville. 

The eight finalists were chosen from a pool of over 200 applicants who submitted their artwork. All eight finalists will have their work displayed at Bethesda’s Artery Plaza Gallery next month.

Along with $10,000 for best in show, $2,000 will be awarded to the second place winner and $1,000 will go to the third place winner. A $1,000 prize may also go to honor a young artist.

The finalists are:

• James Adkins, of Ellicott City
• John Aquilino, of Rockville
• Sheila Blake, of Takoma Park
• J. Jordan Bruns, of Chevy Chase
• Lisa Gostev, of Reisterstown
• Ron Boehmer, Lynchburg, Va.
• Alison Hall of Roanoke, Va.
• Emma Steinkraus of Washington, D.C.

The Bethesda Painting Awards, produced by the Bethesda Arts and Entertainment District, were established by Bethesda philanthropist and community activist Carol Trawick in 2005. The non-voting chair of the painting awards is Catriona Fraser, a renowned photographer and curator and former director of Bethesda's Fraser Gallery, which

The competition will be juried this year by Philip Geiger, an art instructor at the University of Virginia; Evelyn Hankins, associate curator at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C. and Jinchul Kim, a painting professor at Salisbury University.

The winners will be announced at a private event June 1, and the finalists’ work will be on display at the Artery Plaza Gallery – located at 7200 Wisconsin Avenue—from June 1 through June 25.

A public opening is slated for 6-9p.m. June 10 at the gallery, in conjunction with the