POWAY -- A prize-winning nude painting on display by the Rancho Bernardo Art Association is going to get a little less exposure.

The oil painting of a woman drying off after her bath will be moved upstairs, said Susan Bainbridge, chairperson of the "Artists and Friends" exhibit, held at the Poway Center for the Performing Arts.

Bainbridge said a Poway city official told her people had complained the painting was not appropriate for children who might see the exhibit. Poway High School is adjacent to the arts center on Espola Road.

Art association officials said there's nothing wrong with the painting, "After the Bath," but they will move it to avoid a confrontation. They spoke on Sunday on the first day of the exhibition, which runs until Jan. 29.

"As artists, we strongly object, but we're going to compromise and move it upstairs," said Marlene Levitt, president of the art association. "We're going to move it, not remove it."

The painting by Barbara Harris won first place in the oil/acrylic category in the show. Other winners were Carole Patton's "Quince," which won first place in watercolor, and Marilyn Hausman's "Inner Outer Space" won in the "other" category. Best of Show went to Helen Sherry's mixed media, "Twilight Sonata." The exhibit was judged by Stan Sowinski, a noted painter and teacher who lives in San Diego.

Sunday's afternoon event was also a reception for the artists, who mingled with about 70 guests as they admired the scores of paintings on display. Scenes include depictions of tropical beaches, foreign landscapes, and the whimsical, such as Marshall Kline's mixed media "Sea Scene," depicting a hammer on the head of a shark (hammerhead), a fish with saws for teeth (sawfish), and similar creations

Harris' painting was prominently displayed with the three other top winners on a wall opposite the entrance. In soft brush strokes, the painting depicts the woman holding a towel, breasts visible, sitting on the edge of an old-fashioned standing bathtub.

"Almost every artist has made a nude painting. That's life and I don't see anything to be embarrassed about, not if it's done tastefully," Harris said. "We're interested in forms and shapes and how they relate to each other."

The nude painting was more of an exercise in form and color than anything else, Harris said. She painted the flesh to give it a luminous, "opalescent" effect.

Nudes are traditional art subjects, said guest Barbara Novikoff, who said the painting is worth appreciating for its style, done after the fashion of French master Auguste Renoir.

"We go beyond the sexuality of it," Novikoff said.

Bob Emery, a Poway city councilman, said he had not seen the painting or heard of the concerns. But if the painting is indeed done tastefully, he said he would not object to its display.

"What high school kids have access to today is far worse than a tastefully done piece of artwork," Emery said.

The concerns will probably get the painting a far bigger audience than it otherwise would have received, he said. "I would never have heard of it. Now I might have to go over and take a look myself."

The association's Web site is http://www.ranchobernardoart.com.

Contact staff writer Bradley J. Fikes at (760) 739-6641 or bfikes@nctimes.com. Comment at nctimes.com.