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An exhibit of the work of the eight finalists in the annual Bethesda Painting Awards competition is on view at the Fraser Gallery in Bethesda through July 4. The winners of the generous awards, funded by the Trawick Foundation, were announced at the opening earlier this month.

As in the past, the competition was open to artists of all levels from Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C. Of the record 240-plus submissions received, 38 were chosen as semi-finalists. The jurors included John Winslow, painter and Catholic University emeritus professor, whose proclivities are fairly evident in the selection of finalists. The other two jurors, also painting professors, were Patrice Kehoe, University of Maryland, and Ruth Bolduan, Virginia Commonwealth University.

Perhaps most interesting about the results of the judging is the relative homogeneity of the selections, with one glaring exception. On one hand is a group of abstract works, all of them involving linear patterning and layering of forms. The rest are realists, except for the top prize winner, Camilo Sanin, who works in a style that might be called Neo-Color Field. Sanin's striped paintings are reminiscent of the work of 1960s Washington Color Field painters Gene Davis and Howard Mehring, but on a much smaller scale.

While Sanin's winning "Composicion 4" is colorful and eye catching, I fail to see how it could possibly have been judged substantially more interesting or promising than any of the 240 submissions received, including the ones in the exhibit. This is, of course, commonplace in such competitions; the subjective views of the jurors are a major factor, and this is why those who don't win are encouraged to try again. It could be argued that Sanin is a "back to the basics" painter at a time that painting's relevance has been questioned.

Nevertheless, the artist's statement, which he read at the awards ceremony, was full of the rhetoric of mid-20th century minimalism, pronounced as if it were something new by a very young man who is still completing his master of fine arts degree at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore. No apologies were offered other than the explanation that Sanin's work "delves into the realm of geometric abstraction because it seeks the establishment and understanding of basic principles such as order and harmony through line and color." In other words, to quote 1960s minimalist Frank Stella, "What you see is what you see."

The work of second- and third-place winners, Heidi Fowler and Magnolia Laurie respectively, has considerably more visual interest. Fowler was a finalist with similar paintings of the industrialized landscape in 2007. Made with acrylic, junk mail, vinyl tape, found objects and inkjet transfer on panel, these works have textured and nuanced surfaces that animate the bleakness of the electric transmission towers, bridges and light poles that are her primary subjects. Based primarily on photographs taken from a moving car, these paintings are emblematic of the road, of what we see between places.

Laurie's work is essentially abstract, but like Winslow, she combines abstract elements with bits of realism. The winning painting, "Tangled in the Answer," on a small panel, shows red and white striped curtains in the midst of small block-like forms that look like some sort of construction against a painterly background. In "Experience Tells Us Not To Expect This," similar forms seem to be collecting themselves on one side of the painting with an intriguing sense of imminent movement, again, in a way reminiscent of Winslow.

Lilian Bayley Hoover, the winner of the Young Artist award, is a realist whose work is based on photographs that she recreates in three-dimensional reproductions, and then carefully paints. The resulting works have the look of animated movie stills, with moralist overtones about society having become inured to the horrors of war and tamed it for children's consumption in games and movies. While the sentiment is admirable, the paintings are oddly flat, despite their high color and soft focus.

Steven Adams' large abstract paintings are among the most interesting in the exhibit. These feature a network of organic lines that vaguely resemble batik patterns or vegetation. The surfaces are hard, and seen from the side, shining. Adams has developed a fascinating process to create these, and other more exciting works, which inexplicably weren't selected for the exhibit. He layers oil paint onto canvases, then cures them in the sun under plastic sheeting to increase the heat. Hitting them from behind, sometimes with 2 by 4's, causes the cracking that results in the patterns. He can control the lines this way, almost like drawing. Ultimately, he polishes out the paint with a "slurry mix" of powders to an extremely smooth and glossy surface.

A last word to note the work of Katherine Mann, another young artist among the finalists. Her "Filigree 4 (Mosaicism) Pt. 1" is one of a seven-panel work on layered and cut papers, combining bold abstraction with sensitively penned drawings. This is imaginative, interesting work that speaks of potential. It should be noted that both Mann and Laurie have been selected from among hundreds of applicants, national and international, for two of the five distinguished Hamiltonian Gallery Fellowships for emerging artists. Applications were evaluated on criteria regarding technical merit, originality and relevance to today's art world. The honor is well placed.