Five years ago, Carol Trawick began funding the highest paying art competition in the area at the time. The Trawick Prize, held at Creative Partners, was open to artists working in all media, with the high cash prizes often won by new media artists working in video, digital technologies and installation.

Encouraged by Fraser Gallery owner Catriona Fraser, Trawick began a similar competition open only to painters three years ago: the Bethesda Painting Award. The competition is open to all artists over 18, living in D.C., Maryland, and Virginia, and is juried each year by three area arts professionals. According to Fraser, Trawick’s prizes raised the bar for cash awards in area art competitions, with several other high stakes prizes arising in the D.C. area since their inception.

This year’s winners were chosen from a pool of over 250 area painters. The three jurors chose seven finalists to exhibit their work and, once the work was hung, unanimously chose the first, second and third place winners. The seven finalists of this year’s Bethesda Painting Awards are on view until July 7 at the Fraser Gallery in Bethesda.

First place winner Matthew Klos, an MFA graduate of the University of Maryland, won $10,000 for his representational light-infused paintings of very still interiors. The youngest finalist, Klos’ selection as the winner has brought some controversy, most notably from Washington Post art critic Michael O’Sullivan, who called Klos “a merely serviceable academic painter of quasi-photo-realist utility sinks and the like” in his recent review.

Upon first view of Klos’ three largest paintings, I have to admit I agreed. After all, the Bethesda Painting Award is supposed to recognize the best of the area’s contemporary painters. How could it be that realistically painted interiors are the best of contemporary paintings in the D.C. area? After my initial dismissal of Klos’ work, I approached his approximately 9” x 12” painting American Icon (pictured above). The small grey-toned piece features an open window with the subtle reflection of an American flag. The reflection was so slight that one could easily miss it, and it was this subtleness that moved me to take another look at Klos’ three other works.