Newton The “David Ohlerking Paints” exhibit has opened TraillWorks in Newton. Ohlerking is known to many as the roving 15 minute portrait painter, who has painted hundreds of free portraits in front of Cheddar Alley in Newton. The idea of painting such portraits was an exercise to help loosen up the artist’s style, which shows in the streetscapes now being represented by TraillWorks at Spring Street in Newton and which runs through Jan. 29. Ohlerking is the founder of the Austin Figurative Gallery/Project with Chris Chappell, a member of The New Jersey Society of Plein Air Painters, and a finalist in 2009 for the Hunting Art Prize. Newly “retired” from his office job and recently relocated to Philadelphia, David is now a full- time artist finding inspiration from his painting teacher, Alex Kanevsky, and 20th century painter Richard Diebenkorn. Organizers said the 25 paintings on display are “expressive, colorful cityscapes painted on site in Newton,” with others representing New Hope, Stroudsburg, Doylestown, Pa., Washington, Chester and Ocean City. Ohlerking is actually more concerned with the construction of a painting. “Subject matter is almost completely unimportant to my work, it’s fun to paint a person, the human body is pretty fascinating, but I’m not really altering what I’m do,” he said. “It’s about the relationship between the color, transparent paint vs. not transparent paint.” For more information, visit www.traillworks.com/currentevents.html.