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The Betty Bowen Committee, chaired by Gary Glant, has announced Ellen Lesperance as winner of the 32nd annual Betty Bowen Award, which comes with an unrestricted cash prize of $15,000. A selection of Lesperance’s work will be on view at the Seattle Art Museum beginning October 21, 2010.

Eli Hansen was awarded the PONCHO Special Recognition award in the amount of $2,500, and Barbara Sternberger was selected to receive the Kayla Skinner Special Recognition Award in the amount of $2,500. Five finalists chosen from a pool of 350 applicants from Washington, Oregon and Idaho, including Chris Engman and Emily Gherard, competed for the $20,000 in awards. ...

Barbara Sternberger was an M.F.A. graduate from the University of California, Irvine. She resides in Bellingham, Washington and has been a lecturer and painting instructor at Western Washington University since 1994. She is represented by Elizabeth Leach Gallery, where she will show in a solo exhibition this year. Her work was included in Show of Hands: Northwest Women Artists 1880-2010 at Whatcom Museum, WA. Sternberger’s paintings demonstrate her interest in discovering a harmony between the application of paint and how it expresses the artist’s lived experiences.