The Painted Forest collection of wallpapers draws from a lush, tropical landscape of plants such as palms and plantains, and trees such as the frangipani, kachnar and jackfruit. Arranged as a panorama, the main artwork features a garden in almost full scale, and spans over 90 feet as a non repeating design. The artwork is entirely hand drawn and coloured using mixed media such as water colours, gouache and pencil.

Artist Jisha Unnikrishnan’s inspiration for the collection came from the garden at Amethyst, Chennai. Part real and part fantasy, and drawn in a naturalistic style, birds and animals disappear into the foliage set against a gentle monsoon sky, while a dense growth of shrubs and grasses form the base of the composition. The panorama serves as the inspiration for all the designs in this collection. References are varied and include the magnificent dreamscapes of Henri Rousseau, colours from Indian popular art, wood block printing and French Toile de Jouy textiles.

The collection brings in a connection to the outdoors and in particular, a wild, unmanicured landscape that feels almost utopic, a dream background that extends the everyday realities of living in our homes and offices into the endless beauty of nature.