ArtMuse

Real or imaginary, the forest scenes and woodland that depicts in her large scale paintings are at once riveting and unsettling. Are they momentary dream-like places that are projected as if in a dream, only to disappear or perhaps scenes from a fairy tale?
“Rues and Leaves Themselves Alone”, is an exhibition by Los Angeles–based artist at
It’s a painting show but also features a digital wander through the dioramas that inspire Webster’s landscapes.
“You are on the edge of a forest where night is always falling. You are on a journey. As you walk around Emma Webster’s paintings, you explore a world. As you walk through the accompanying video game, you discover that same world again, passing through parts of the same landscapes, overlapping. These are two different renderings of the world, and neither is a perfect representation. One is brightly colorful, it’s daytime, there’s fluff and pollen floating in the air, it is the kind of comforting place one might travel to in a meditation. The other is bleaker, colder, darker, a wide-open space that is foreboding.

These are dreams of animals in dreams of landscapes. They are symbols of animals, or mythical animals that only exist in our minds.…
You are on a journey through a place that is not real. It is a mirage-space, or, a mythical space of pagan animal gods, or, the land of the dead, or someplace else. Like the places of visions, it cannot be represented perfectly, only proposed. These are only attempts to render a space beyond our own…
Different kinds of space and modes of representing space are combined, collaged and smeared together, then rendered as images that break the conventions of landscape painting and illusionistic space. They are spaces that cannot really be understood. They are more like propositions, like the hypothetical spaces of complex algebra. Like when a mathematician is trying to solve a problem and sees the problem manifested as colors and forms before him...” (Dean Kissick)

Forms flow, undulate and swirl or they are quietly constructed in geometric grid formation, but all the new paintings in a first solo show at of LA based artist are composed of vibrant colors and carefully applied tiny dots that echo her meditation practice.
“For Jain, painting is more than a means of creative expression. After experiencing several family tragedies by the time she was a teenager, including the death of her brother, it became a salve and a refuge, helping her to cope with feelings of grief and loneliness.
In 2015, Jain turned her attention to Minimalism, in particular, the work of Agnes Martin. Coinciding with the deepening of her spiritual practice, Jain’s work evolved, becoming more refined and distilled. The desire to convey the intangible process of breath awareness, an integral element of her meditation, inspired Jain to develop a distinctive visual language articulated in dots, dashes, and lines. She deploys these elements amid translucent washes of pigment in her two current series of colorful abstract paintings, Yantra and Ta**ra.
The Yantra series (begun in 2020) is named for the geometric configurations often used as a visual aid for meditation. Characterized by precisely arranged grid motifs that emanate from a central point, these mesmerizing works align with the concept of samadhi, the mind’s ability to achieve a state of undisturbed focus and peace through meditation.
Where the Yantra series is orderly and focused, Jain’s  Ta**ra series (begun in 2021) is fluid and organic, characterized by swirling concentrations of marks that coalesce into boundless, flowing arrangements. In these works, Jain lets go of structure and surrenders to freedom and spontaneity. The compositions are lively and unrestrained, evoking topographical maps, shimmering constellations, or colonies of microorganisms.
When presented together, the Yantra and the Ta**ra paintings, which share the same visual and spiritual language, suggest there is an equilibrium that can exist between the opposing forces that reside within us.“