In the "Riffs on Real Time with Ground" series, Hewitt introduces a pairing of two elements. The panel on the right is a chromatic ground, an abstract artwork that is not a photograph, nor digitally produced, but rather the result of Hewitt’s process in the dark room, where she introduces the surface of the photo paper to light in a variety of ways to achieve these colorful compositions. In these chromatic works, Hewitt attempts to conjure up an atmosphere or feeling. Ultimately, the works nod to minimalism and conceptualism, important themes in Hewitt’s work.
In the work on the left, Hewitt displays a black and white Riffs on Real Time photograph. In these black and white Riffs works, Hewitt de-saturated the original photograph, meaning that the works were photographed in color and then had their hue removed. Combining the colored grounds with the desaturated Riffs on Real Time photographs was meant to encourage viewers to think about the colors in the photograph that aren't visibly present.
Works from this series were exhibited at the Contemporary Arts Center in New Orleans, Louisana during the exhibition "Hinge Pictures: Eight Women Artists Occupy the Third Dimension," 2019. Photographs from the "Riffs on Real Time" series are included in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT; the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; and the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University, Cambridge, MA; among others.