Julie Baker Fine Art is going through a transition.

Owner Julie Baker recently announced she is closing her gallery in Nevada City to focus on selling art in New York City, but said she plans to continue to offer contemporary art and design to the West coast and local community.

As a final exhibition at her gallery on Commercial Street, she is mounting the show "Inside Out," with paintings by David Leonard and Dalton Jamieson. An artists reception is set for Saturday, from 4-8 p.m., where selected store items will also be sold.

Leonard paints realist cityscapes, industrial landscapes and man-made objects. Jamieson paints the interiors of where he lives. Both painters are masters of highlight, shadow and color. In this show Leonard focuses in on San Francisco, capturing the filtered light of ocean fog, steep hills and images of AT&T Park. Leonard, based in Austin, Texas, paints from his own photographs. The show will include at least six large paintings and seven smaller studies.

Leonard, who painstakingly depicts the density and ordered chaos of our modern existence, writes, "I want the viewer to focus on the whole city as opposed to the individuals in it. In that way it becomes not about particular people but everybody's experience within that city."

Jamieson's latest series, the Rio Bravo paintings, are of his sparse apartment in San Luis Obispo, Ca., and are about light, specifically about the changing light from morning to afternoon in one setting.

He writes, "Slowly I became intrigued by simpler things like looking down a hallway and noticing how the light, coming through a window, hit the floor and affected the light on the walls and how the light changed as the day progressed."

By removing all items from a room, Jamieson says he removes the narrative from the painting, so people won't be asking, "Hey, why did this guy paint all these dirty socks and empty beer cans on his apartment floor? What does it all mean?"

Both artists show in galleries in other cities.

Even though Garson Baker Fine Art in NYC will be Baker's primary focus after June 1, the dealer will continue to maintain a local presence. Indeed, already on the calendar is "A Summer Salon: New Paintings by Santa Fe Artist Alexandra Eldridge," set for August as a Julie Baker Fine Art event.

Said Baker, "I have a lot of clients who use my website as a tool to acquire art, and I will continue to operate the gallery with virtual exhibitions. I also plan to hold events two to three times a year in Nevada County with jewelry, art and music, so although the physical space will be closed the gallery lives on."



KNOW & GO



WHAT: "Inside Out," a new exhibition with paintings by David Leonard and Dalton Jamieson

WHEN: Saturday, 4-8 p.m. is a reception, both for the opening of the exhibition and the closing of the gallery, setfor the end of the month. (The exhibition runs through May 31).

WHERE: Julie Baker Fine Art, 246 Commercial St., Nevada City

ADMISSION: Free

INFORMATION: Julie Baker at (530) 265-9278; cell, (530) 277-2670; julie@juliebakerfineart.com; online at www.juliebakerfine

art.com