“Three Questions”

Erica
Newton

June 12, 2025Volume 2
Issue 2

Gideon’s Bakery: what do you like about painting?

Erica Newton: I like the way it gets me to look at the world, like I'm active listening/looking. I like the space it offers me to kind of worldbuilding and dialogue with myself and my memories and fantasies. I like the mystery of it and the surprise. I like the all-at-onceness of painting, there is no order for how you are supposed to receive the information. I like what that does to our sense of time and space and order. And of course, I like the materiality of the whole endeavor.

Oh and I also like the problem solving aspect—there’s always something to be worked out.

GB: Can you say more about the materiality of the whole endeavor? How did you come about using the materials you use in the way that you use them?

EN: Well I didn't pick up oil paints until I was an art model at the New York Studio School (which is where I got my MFA). I would be sitting there for hours watching other people mix paint and imagine what it might feel like and entertain myself by thinking about how I would mix a certain color in the room. So I kind of craved them from afar before I took the plunge. I also have the studio school to thank for the plaster. The school does these intensives for two weeks between terms that they call marathons and I started taking sculpture rather than drawing ones (Marathons are also how I started out with oil painting too because they are open to everyone). I was introduced to plaster in one of these marathons and had so much fun with it. The quality of plaster when it's wet is enticing and the possibilities feel endless and then there's this big reveal moment where you don't quite know how it will turn out (at least the way I do it, hah). But I was also so immersed in painting, image, and color, so I thought I'd try making plaster slabs to paint on and it was immediately exciting and experimental. I am still getting surprised by what paint and plaster can do together so that's probably a reason I have kept with it. I also like immediately being involved in making the actual art object, which the plaster part of the process definitely is. It's sort of funny, but I don't have much patience for stretching and preparing a canvas and don't especially love the quality of the surface. I want to get right into it and I want something that talks back. Though this wasn't a conscious intention (and still isn't really, though I'm more aware of it) I guess I'll just say there's something intriguing about walking the line between a painting and a sculptural object. Something about the presence of it.

GB: How does the materiality affect the content? If it doesn’t, why do you think that is?

EN:My counter to you might be what’s the difference between materiality and content? I’m not sure I can totally figure how to draw the distinction. It’s all metaphor and it’s all itself simultaneously. Image and the senses engaged by the material get interlocked in the making. For me, there is no content without material, I think they’re inextricably linked.

My less esoteric answer is that, in terms of process, often the plaster offers something to respond to and build an image off of. Sometimes when it’s setting I start playing around or composing with something in mind but often when I get the first pass of paint on something else happens other than my original intention. So I guess what I’m saying is there’s this oscillation between what elements are directing the unfolding of the work. I don’t try to foist an idea onto a material, there’s always a dialogue.

Erica’s work is currently on display at Ruby/Dakota (155 E 2nd Street, NYC) in a two person exhibition “Stretch Marks” with Ellen Hanson through June 28th. You can learn more about Erica on her website and instagram.

Flowers at Night, 2023
oil and plaster on wood
11 x 9.5 inches
Photo: Rosie Lopeman

Erica in her Skowhegan studio.
Photo: Tyler Mathew Oyer

untitled (scrap 1), 2024
Spray paint, plaster, paint skins, oil paint, burlap
5 x 6 inches
Photo: The artist

Vol 1. (May 2024—March 2025) Vol 2. (June 2025—?) About Contributors EmailInstagram ©2025 Gideon’s Bakery

Vol 1. (May 2024—March 2025)
Vol 2. (June 2025—?)

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