Bob Newhart’s work has been transformed into stickers, which may be collected at the First Friday Art Walk as part of the Detective Club. (Submitted photo)

The three-day Summer Festival will kick off with Downtown Bend’s First Friday Art Walk.

Since the Fourth of July landed on the first Friday of the month, the Art Walk has been moved to this week.

Artist Bob Newhart has been selected as the Bend Visitor Center’s July artist in residence and a collection of his paintings is on display at the center this month. Friday evening, a film featuring his work will be shown at the center.

Newhart is launching the Detective Club at the art walk, an effort to engage children and the young at heart in Bend’s art scene and the paintings of local artists, according to a press release.

Newhart wanted to find a way to involve more kids and families in the art walk, an event often dominated by adults. So he asked for advice from his partner, Wyndee King, a special education teacher.

King said, “I work with elementary school students and I know they love stickers, so I was like, ‘Let’s think of something that has to do with stickers.’”

King ordered stickers of Newhart’s paintings and designed a passport book with faint images of the stickers, indicating where the seven stickers should be placed.

“The goal is for them to visit all the shops and get a different feel for how the art walk works,” she said.

Participants in the Detective Club will start at the visitors center, where they’ll pick up the passport book. Then they can visit seven nearby businesses to collect the stickers, which include Dudley’s Bookshop Cafe, Leapin’ Lizards, Cascade Cottons, Fjallraven, Lotus Moon Boutique, Red Chair Gallery and Staghorn Mercantile.

Lasting impressions

When Newhart’s youngest son was a child, they came across a string quartet performing on the streets of downtown. His son became mesmerized, Newhart said, adding that he would not leave; he had to watch them.

His son would go on to become an award-winning jazz musician.

“That’s what I’m hoping the painting thing will do for kids on the art walk,” he said.

Painting music

Newhart’s art style is entwined with music. He considers music the highest form of art. He is a dedicated fan of improvisational jazz, but listens to all styles of music.

“If I could approximate in art the colors, notes, rhythms, tones, and textures that Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane, Brad Mehldau, and today Torrey Newhart put into sound, then I would be very pleased,” Newhart.

Typically, he said has no idea what he’s going to paint until his brush touches the canvas. His work is influenced by songs, which he openly shares on his website in the form of 30-second audio clips, which indicate the song that inspired the work of art.

“I like to say ‘a silent brush in search of sound.’ It’s taking that brush and seeing where it goes and what sound comes through,” Newhart said.

Newart is on an eternal quest to embrace uncertainty through his art and to leave behind expectations.

“It’s about leaving expectations and judgements behind because they infect us with impatience, disappointment, anger and rigidity. Sometimes we think that expectations allow us some degree of control. Actually, expectations control us. If the artist leaves those things behind, they can move on to experience the natural combustion that comes from he mix of wonder, spontaneity, imagination, creativity, resourcefulness and fun,” he said.

If You Go

What: The Detective Club at First Friday Art Walk

When: 5-8 p.m. Friday

Where: Bend Visitor Center (750 NW Lava Road #160, Bend) and surrounding businesses

Cost: Free

Contact: downtownbend.org/first-friday