A record crowd attended the opening reception of Karan Ruhlen Gallery’s exhibit, Surface Beauty last Friday evening. This group exhibit includes the work of five accomplished women artists whose paintings explore the beauty in art and nature.

Martha Rea Baker’s paintings continue to deal with the concept of “time”, the passage of time and its effects on our natural world. Her works depict chronological time, marking the sequential passage of hours, days or seasons or an ancient age glimpsed through excavation. “My painting process of adding, subtracting and thoughtful editing is a metaphor for life’s timeline.”says Baker.