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ANNE
SPUDVILAS
Anne Spudvilas is a multi-award-winning
illustrator of children's books and an established
portrait painter.
Anne lives in Elwood, Victoria and works in a busy
studio in Brunswick with eleven other artists.
Her work concentrates on portraying character and
expression
in people, both in commissioned portraits or children's
books with a strong character base. Anne works
predominantly in oils with some work in colored inks
and pastel.
  
Her
love of drawing as a child led to a career in
graphic design working on instore poster and
catalogue design for Target, fashion houses and newspaper
advertising. More recently she has concentrated
on
her passion,
painting people.
In 1996 Anne was awarded the Crichton Award for
Illustration for her first picture book The
Race (by Christobel
Mattingley). The Race was also
awarded CBCA Honour Book the same year. In 2000
she won the CBCA
Picture Book of the Year award for Jenny
Angel (with Margaret
Wild), which was also shortlisted for the NSW
Premiers Award. In 2006 Anne teamed up again
with Margaret
Wild to create Woolvs in the Sitee,
which was a 2007 CBCA Honour Book. Anne’s
most recent picture book, The Peasant
Prince, an adaptation
of Li Cunxin’s
autobiography, Mao’s Last Dancer,
was awards CBCA Picture Book of the Year 2008.
Prior to
illustrating The Peasant Prince Anne
travelled to China with
Li to visit his home town of Qingdao and to meet
his family, gathering valuable background material
for the book.
 
As
the illustrator of seven picture books and winner of many
book awards, Anne Spudvilas
has
many years
of experience working with authors and publishers.
She brings this experience with her to present
workshops and talks to students at primary,
secondary and tertiary
levels.
 
Anne's
portrait of friend and fellow artist Leigh Hobbs (creator
of OLD TOM) was selected
in the
Archibald Prize in 2000. Anne's exhibitions
include solo and
group shows since 1985 and she has paintings
in collections in Australia, the United States,
Europe and Asia.
Portrait subjects include Jackie Weaver,
Felicity Kennett, Melbourne Lord Mayor Lecki Ord and
writer Isobelle Carmody. Her work has been
selected
for exhibition in the Archibald Prize in
1999 and 2000,
the Doug Moran Portrait Prize in 1996 and
the Portia Geach Memorial Prize in 1995, 1997 and
2002.
 
SCHOOL
VISITS
Anne works with a selected picture book and
explains the process of creating the visuals
to expand
an author’s text, using storyboards,
roughs, dummy books and some original illustration.
She also holds
drawing workshops for students from Grade
1 to 6, and for secondary level.
DRAWING
WORKSHOPS
Using charcoal, Anne takes students step
by step through the stages of drawing,
from beginning
with the simplest shapes to adding light
and shade, tone
and texture to create a realistic picture
of a cat. This simple exercise is extremely
popular
with children
and is an excellent introduction to the
basics of using a tonal medium.
Elements
of portraiture are also discussed with older students, with
a member of
the class being
selected
and drawn, either as a tonal portrait,
or in the style of a courtroom sketch
(Anne works
with the
Melbourne media as a court artist).
More information
can be found at her website
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