An Ann Arbor woman took home $5,000 for best of show at the Toledo Area Artists’ exhibition, which opened Friday night in the Toledo Museum of Art.

Katie St. Clair won for her huge painting, Swiland, acrylic and photo collage on panels. “My large-scale landscapes weave layers of paint into fragmented photo collages of highly detailed images of nature,” she wrote in an artist statement. She’s inspired by, “the crunching of pine needles beneath my feet. Decaying leaves under the muddy surface of a puddle. The lichen that is inseparable from its stone. I believe stories are held in the landscape.”

Ms. St. Clair also received the Athena Art Society award ($250) which goes to a female artist.

First, second, and third places went to Toledo men. Toledo native David Eichenberg took first ($2,500) for his portrait, Doug. His studio is in a 19th-century building near the High Level Bridge. “I am especially interested in people who wear themselves on the outside,” he wrote on his Web site.

Creating incredibly realistic portraits, the 1998 University of Toledo graduate has been a finalist in such prestigious contests at the Boochever Portrait Competition in the Smithsonian and the BP Award Exhibition in the National Portrait Gallery in London.

Second ($1,500) goes to Michael Arrigo, for Sirens’ Song, a two-channel video installation (one channel mirrored). It’s about seduction and the struggle to remain intellectually curious and engaged with the world. Arrigo teaches art at Bowling Green State University.

Zak Lyons, a 2013 graduate of BGSU, takes third ($1,000) for Goodbye Blue Skies.

Honored for making a significant impact in the Toledo art community is Toni Andrews of Sylvania, an award presented by the Toledo Federation of Art Societies.

Andrews, it could be said, has sold more local and regional art than anyone else at her American Gallery shop on Sylvania Avenue. She sold the business in June but still shows up to work at the gallery every Monday.

Other prizes, most accompanied by cash, went to Joshua Newth of Farmington Hills, Mich.; Charles Mintz of Cleveland; Chris LaPorte of Grand Rapids, Mich., and K.A. Letts of Ann Arbor.

The 95th annual contest, previously known as the May Show, drew submissions from 462 people who live within 150 miles of Toledo, from which 28 finalists were selected. The judge was Christopher Knight, art critic for the Los Angeles Times.

The free show will continue through Jan. 4.

First Published November 22, 2014, 1:01 a.m.