Baltimore artists Jo Smail and Nicholas  F. Wisniewski are among 11 finalists for this year's Trawick Prize awarded by the Bethesday Urban Partnership. The winner will be announced Sept. 6. Smail, a three-time finalist for the Trawick Prize, is represented by several large oil paintings on canvas. Wisniewski is represented by an installation based on an outdoor project he is completing in Baltimore called the Forest Street City Farm.

The Trawick competition, now in its fifth year, is named after Bethesda businesswoman and arts activist Carol Trawick. The competition awards a $10,000 first prize, $2,000 second prize and a $1,000 third prize; it also awards a $1,000 prize to a young artist under 30.

Lauren Hamilton, a marketing specialist at the Bethesda Urban Partnership, said Baltimore artists were prominently represented among this year's 300 applicants for the prize.

"We've had a lot of crossover," Hamilton said. "A lot of finalists and past winners of the Trawick Prize were also finalists for the Sondheim prize. Baltimore's Tony Shore, who won the Sondheim Prize this year,  won the Bethesda Painting Award in 2006."

The Bethesda Painting Award, which is limited to painters, was also begun under the auspices of Carol Trawick and the Bethesda Urban Partnership. The Trawick Prize is open to all visual artists.

The judges for this year's Trawick Prize are Anne Ellegood, associate curator at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, Amy Moorefield, assistant director and curator of collections at Virginia Commonwealth University's Anderson Gallery in Richmond, and Rex Stevens, chair of the general fine arts department at Maryland Institute College of Art. 

The other finalists for this year's prize are Mary Coble, Mary Early, Inga Frick, Baby Martinez and Kathleen Shafer, all of Washington; Suzanna Fields and Bruce Wilhelm of Richmond; Linda Hesh of Alexandria, Va., and Jeannine Harkelroad of Chesapeake, Va.

The finalists' work will be exhibited from Sept. 4-28 at the Creative Partners Gallery, 4600 East-West Highway in Bethesda. The competition is open to artists from Maryland, Washington and Virginia.