In The Land of the Rainforest Trees, Paul Holsby offers a deeply atmospheric journey into an imagined landscape — not through literal depiction, but through abstract evocation. Created in 1973 and rendered in large format, the work breathes with the layered complexity of a rainforest: dense, rhythmic, alive.
Using mixed media, Holsby builds up the surface with a painterly richness that suggests earth, bark, foliage, and mist. Blocks of color rise and dissolve like canopy layers, while fine, gestural lines whisper of roots and branches hidden beneath the visible. There is no central figure, instead, the viewer is immersed in a spatial and emotional field, as if walking through memory rather than terrain.
The title anchors the work in nature, but it’s nature as metaphor — for growth, interconnection, mystery. This is a landscape of the mind as much as of the world, one that invites reflection and stillness.
This piece stands as a testament to Holsby’s ability to merge abstraction with poetic meaning, crafting a visual language that is both grounded and transcendent.
Great vintage condition.
Framed size: 72 x 52cm / 28.3 x 20.5in
Technique: Mixed media on canvas
Artist: Paul Holsby, Swedish (1921-2007)
