The Adelaide Park Lands are a vast and sometimes mysterious canvas for a young mind. As a child, by day I caught tadpoles there and brought them home in jars. At night I could hear frogs in the creek, but the trees cast giant threatening shadows. I have illustrated the CJ Dennis poem "Hist" to recreate the sense of adventure and potential for play that can be created by having access to bush in the middle of the suburbs. My illustration takes the form of a map that recreates a child’s journey through the poem or through the Park Lands of their imagination.

Ink and watercolour on paper 76 × 54cm