Inside Emma Webster's LA Studio

Why It Matters

Webster’s integrated studio workflow demonstrates how artists can leverage inexpensive 3D scanning and modular organization to accelerate concept development, offering a replicable model for the evolving art‑tech ecosystem.

Key Takeaways

• Webster begins each piece with hand‑drawn sketches and watercolors.
• Uses phone or scanner for 3D scans of physical models.
• Organizes paint tubes by color for rapid palette matching.
• Creates scale dioramas to visualize aerial perspectives in paintings.
• Stages works-in-progress together to foster visual dialogue among pieces.

Summary

Emma Webster invites viewers into her Los Angeles studio, revealing a hybrid workflow that blends traditional drawing with cutting‑edge digital tools.

She starts every commission with hand‑sketched watercolors, then captures physical models using a phone‑based or dedicated 3D scanner. The resulting scans feed into renders that sit alongside the paintings, letting her test lighting and composition before finalizing the piece.

Webster highlights a “handmade desktop” diorama that provides an aerial view of a landscape, and a color‑tube rack that lets her click out specific palettes for instant matching. A scale model for the upcoming Petzl show illustrates how she treats each painting as a frame in a 360‑degree narrative, even joking that the works “converse” when she steps away.

By marrying tactile sketching with rapid digital iteration, Webster creates a fluid pipeline that reduces guesswork and expands creative possibilities for contemporary painters, signaling a broader shift toward mixed‑media production in the fine‑art market.

Original Description

Inside Emma Webster’s Los Angeles studio, worlds are built, landscapes are pruned, and paintings are painted.

Her process is not as straightforward as you might think. Sometimes they begin as sketches or watercolors, made en plein air. Othertimes they start as clay sculptures, 3D-scanned and molded digitally. Dioramas are made on her computer. Images collected from a vast number of resources. Artwork is made virtually, then physically, then back and forth again.

Her landscapes don’t simply depict nature. She moves beyond the eye-level view of traditional landscape painting. Aerial perspectives, warped distances, impossible light, and invented creatures build an entire world. Familiar forests and fields begin to feel like dreams or spaces from a video game.

Seen together, the works feel less like separate paintings and more like fragments of one unfolding world.

That world soon opens at Petzel in New York (@petzelgallery).

Emma Webster: Rues and Leaves Themselves Alone

Apr 30–Jun 6, 2026

Petzel

New York 🇺🇸