Inside Cole Newman鈥檚 Richardson studio, it seems like every square inch is covered with layers and layers of thick, dried paint.
Walk into the back 鈥渟plash zone鈥� and you鈥檒l find the floor is just dribs and drabs of white, yellow, green, blue, red, purple and pink paint. Even Newman鈥檚 iPhone is covered with a thick layer of paint.
The studio is bursting with energy 鈥� it鈥檚 warm and energetic like Newman. He鈥檚 got what Gen-Z likes to call 鈥済olden retriever energy.鈥�
鈥淚'm sure you can tell I can just talk forever,鈥� he says with a chuckle.
It鈥檚 that chattiness that his 2.3 million TikTok followers enjoy as they watch his viral pendulum painting videos on his channel @colescolor.
Newman calls himself an 鈥渁ction painter.鈥� He suspends a large canvas from hooks installed in the walls of his studio and then hangs a can of paint from the ceiling.
He grabs the paint can and canvas and swings them into motion. The combined movement leads to hypnotizing, loopy patterns. Other times, it can be a lesson in humility with the paint can bouncing off the wall and creating misshapen lines.
Pendulum art has been with one of the earliest references from the 19th century in England. Action painting has been in vogue since the days of Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning.
Newman first learned about the technique online from artist Callen Schaub. In 2020, he and a friend tested it out in his college apartment using a canvas and red solo cup hung from a broomstick. That would become his first piece, titled Spark.
His mom saw the piece and wanted one for her stairwell. So while Newman created Catalyst, his mom recorded the process and they posted the video on TikTok. It went viral with roughly 26.2 million views and 3.4 million likes.
鈥�Spark sparked the idea and Catalyst catalyzed it into a career,鈥� Newman says.
A painter and problem-solver
The path to Newman鈥檚 current profession has been as meandering as one of his paint lines gone wrong.
Newman grew up in Austin playing video games, basketball and water polo. He went to the University of Texas at Dallas and got a degree in interdisciplinary studies with a focus in chemistry and business administration.
Newman is also colorblind, which makes it hard for him to see blue, red, purple and pink.
鈥淚t's nothing crazy, but it's enough where I'm like, 鈥極h, I don't know what this color is.鈥� 鈥�
But he鈥檚 always been creative and enjoyed solving problems. Back in high school, Newman was looking for ways to decorate his Yeti tumbler to prevent it from getting stolen. That鈥檚 when he came upon online tutorials in which people would paint their nails by dipping them into water with paint on the surface. He used that hydro-dipping technique to launch his first business: Cole鈥檚 Cups.
鈥�I鈥檓 very, like, stubborn. I want to do it my way, things like that. So I never really saw myself working for somebody else,鈥� he says.
For his cup painting business, he stayed home over spring break to decorate over 2,000 cups. It鈥檚 the same kind of passion he brings into his work as an action painter.
鈥楩ollow the dopamine鈥�
Newman still gets mesmerized by the way the paint cans make their geometric patterns on the canvas 鈥� it鈥檚 what keeps him coming back to his studio.
As he likes to say, he just 鈥渇ollowed the dopamine.鈥�
鈥淲hatever makes me feel good, whatever I'm excited about, I just do that more,鈥� he says.
That mantra seems to have served him well with a career that has continued to grow since 2020. In 2021, he had his first art show and in 2022 he had his first live performance. Earlier this year, he had his first Los Angeles show. He also recently partnered with Microsoft. Now, he wants to make a giant 3D printer that emits paint and he also wants to make that鈥檚 20,000 square feet.
Despite all his success, not everybody is a fan. He sometimes gets hate comments on his videos questioning the fact that he makes a living from his paintings or comparing his work to something a 5-year-old would make.
Newman鈥檚 response?
鈥淚f your 5-year-old can do it or if they're doing it, amazing. Keep them going,鈥� he says.
He鈥檚 not into gatekeeping, which is evident by the way he thinks about his collaborations.
鈥�I think that collaboration and bringing people in here raises the tide for all creatives versus competition where I'm competing against you to sell more art or whatever else,鈥� he says. 鈥淏ecause the more people that create, the more people that see it and it inspires them to create, the more beautiful stuff in the world.鈥�
Newman just wants to make beautiful art and inspire others to do the same. At the end of the day, he鈥檚 got everything he ever wanted: a fianc茅e who likes snakes, his car, dog 鈥� and guacamole.
鈥�As long as I can make enough money to get guacamole at Chipotle,鈥� he says. 鈥淭hat's what I tell people is like, as long as I can confidently do that that's all I care about.鈥�
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