Wanna go to a Bethesda gallery opening this Friday?

Bethesda Painting Awards! Opening Reception, June 9, 2023 --  6-8pm

Nine artists from Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. have been selected to exhibit and compete in the Bethesda Painting Awards, a fine art competition founded by the amazing Carol Trawick, who is truly, and has been for years one of the great jewels of the DMV art scene!

The Best in Show winner will be awarded $10,000.

Paintings will be exhibited at Gallery B from June 8 – July 2.  Gallery B is on the space of the former Fraser Gallery at 7700 Wisconsin Avenue, Suite E.

Gallery hours: Thursday-Sunday from 12 – 5pm

Please attend the opening on Friday, June 9, 6-8pm - Details here.

The finalists are here... now for my awards!

This year it is going to be hard - there are some superbly talented artists in this group of finalists - my kudos to the jurors (Lillian Hoover, Hedieh Javanshir Ilchi, and John Lee).

Stephanie Cobb of Washington, D.C., Grace Doyle of Baltimore, MD, Jeffrey Deane Hall of Richmond, VA, Rachel Rush, also of Baltimore, MD and Nicole Santiago, of far away Williamsburg, VA are all immensely skilled artists!

This is a hard one - even for The Lenster! I am attracted to the natural skills of Grace Doyle - she has a mastery with the brush that is enviable for someone so young. And probably because she is so young, some crusty jurors may have snotty issues with some of her early subject matter (not me)... but she is growing in leaps and bounds!

Grace Doyle - Within 2023 oil on linen 28" x 20"

Jeffrey Deane Hall's trompe-l'œil  paintings are breath-taking! - again such mastery for someone sooooo young is indescribably delicious! 

Nicole Santiago - Second Time Around, 75 x 60, oil on canvas

And Nicole Santiago (who has been a previous finalist) is really good at packing a decent psych angle to her work, while Rachel Rush can rock a lush landscape.

Who? Either Doyle or Santiago will win.

Best in Show winner: Nicole Santiago