Paintings by Scott Hewitt on display at Temple Arts Loft Gallery during Vallejo Art Walk

VALLEJO — Vallejo residents can take a peek at Oakland artist Scott Hewitt’s large paintings on Friday, as they will be on display during Vallejo’s monthly downtown Art Walk before the show comes down next week.

Hewitt’s show opened with little fanfare last month on the ground floor of the Temple Arts Lofts building on the corner of Marin and Virginia Street in downtown Vallejo. But it drew the attention of Osha Neumann, an artist and civil rights attorney who has represented homeless clients throughout the region.

Neumann described some of Hewitt’s paintings as being “dominated by a single color, like a sustained chord played on an organ” while others are “jazzy, kaleidoscopic patchworks.”

The paintings on display this week represent a new phase in Hewitt’s work. He switched to acrylic paint when the fumes from oil paint solvents began to affect his lungs.

“With that switch has come a change in style, away from succulence toward the dry and precise,” Neumann wrote. “The figures he paints are close to weightless. They stand, sit, or lie as if hypnotized in place. His work is now more restrained, understated, purified of excess.”

Hewitt said that he paints because he needs to. “I paint daily after work out of a necessity that is still a mystery to me,” Hewitt said. “It’s more of a daily meditation than an act of making art.”

“Like dreams, Scott’s paintings resist interpretation,” Neumann wrote. “To call them dreamlike, however, would risk giving the false impression that they are fuzzy and formless. The opposite is the case.”

“Their mysteries are contained in a precise architecture of rectangles, ovals, cones and arches,” Neumann added. “Borders between one form and another are clearly defined. Geometry does not succumb to mystery.”

Hewitt said his paintings are just hints and suggestions to something bigger: “a solo dance that hopefully connects with others.”

Hewitt studied at the San Francisco Art Institute and collaborated with the Sniff Collective to transform the Albany Bulb into a repurposed industrial debris and driftwood sculpture garden.

Art Walk runs from 5 to 9 p.m. The main activity centers are on Marin Street and the nearby blocks of Georgia and Virginia Streets.

Moon Azteca dance school will be holding a fundraiser selling quesabirria tacos and pastries by Lunita’s Kitchen and performing Ballet Folklorico, traditional Mexican folk dance.

Farther-flung participants include Moschetti’s Cafe on the corner of Marin and Florida Streets. The cafe has new owners who are working to expand both the hours and the menu.

Vintage Vagabond Gallery & Flea on Georgia near Sacramento Street will be open with DJ music and Lony Maya will debut an exhibition of ceramic art at the McCune Room in the lower level of the John F. Kennedy Library.