Artists to converge on bus development

Artists competing for a $20,000 prize will take over a section of the Adelaide parklands where trees were felled to make way for a new public transport development.

Twenty finalists in the biennial Adelaide Park Lands Art Prize will move their paintings and easels to the screened off area in Rymill Park on Sunday where more than 70 established trees were felled in recent days.

The prize is an initiative of the Adelaide Park Lands Preservation Association which seeks to promote an awareness and appreciation of Adelaide parklands.

Association spokesman Ian Gilfillan says the competition is a call to action for people to see and appreciate the Adelaide parklands before they "slip away piece by piece".

"The display of the artists' work in the park has been planned for some time, but the recent felling of the trees has added potency to the event and demonstrates the very real and continuing threat to what should be regarded as a treasured resource," he said.

The felling of the trees was conducted as part of the an extension to Adelaide's O-Bahn guided busway with the exit to a new tunnel planned for the parklands area.

More trees will be planted to replace those cut down with a number of significant trees to be replaced on a three-to-one basis.

The winners of the Adelaide Park Lands Art Prize will be announced on the April 15.