LOT 44

SECRET SPACES
by Judy Watson

Description

This small painting looks back to my teenage outings on horseback. During those special years between dependence and independence, solitary explorations and private discoveries were felt deeply. Quiet moments gazing at openings between the trees, the fall of light on speckled foliage and the unfolding rooms within nature have carried all the way through to my writing and art today. 

Acrylic on fibreboard
W 25cm x H 20cm

Illustrator Bio

JUDY WATSON is a Melbourne author, illustrator and mixed-media artist. She is the Illustrator Coordinator for The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (Victoria). Her most recent books are ‘The Boy and the Dog Tree’ by Fiona Wood (2026) ‘Jo and the NO’ by Kyle Mewburn (2025) and ‘Hazel’s Treehouse’ by Zanni Louise (2024). Other picture-books include ‘Goodnight Mice!’ by Frances Watts which won the Prime Minister's Literary Award for Children’s Fiction in 2012; ‘When You’re Older’ by Sofie Laguna which won a Notable in the 2023 CBCA Book of the Year awards; ‘Thunderstorm Dancing’ by Katrina Germein which won a Notable in the 2016 CBCA Awards and was honoured in the Illustrator Australia Awards, ‘Leonard Doesn’t Dance’ by Frances Watts which was selected by the International Youth Library for the White Ravens 2020 Catalogue and ‘Searching for Cicadas’ by Lesley Gibbes, shortlisted for the Eve Pownall Award for information books in the 2020 CBCA awards and winner of a Royal Zoological Society of NSW Whitley Award. Judy’s illustration work has been shortlisted for both the Bologna Children’s Book Fair Illustrator Exhibition and Nami Concours. 

Judy is married with two grown up children, a three-legged dog, several chickens and various foster cats. Her studio overlooks the Sweetwater Creek. She is currently working on several self-authored children’s book projects, writing poetry and preparing work for an exhibition of her artwork at the Kingston Arts Centre in November.