What a fun weekend us illustrators had at Anne Spudvilas’ place on the Murray. The River House was the perfect setting to share ideas, relax and illustrate. Anne gave us a workshop where we made a concertina book on watercolour paper.

Here’s the finished book laid out to dry in the sun.

So I’ll now show you the process.

Here are some of the leaves we used. They are from trees in the garden.

We folded watercolour paper into a book and inserted leaves between the pages.

Then we put the books between tiles and clamped them while we bound them tightly with twine.

Then into the boiling copper it goes.

After 24 hours it was ready for the unveiling.

I’ve removed most of the leaves in this photo and am about to take off that green leaf top left. The patterns and colours left behind are amazing. This was such an exciting moment. My face shows it all.

Anne runs the River House as an Airbnb. I stayed in the Airbnb room and it’s great. Very private and even has its own entrance and balcony where you can sit and watch the bird life and the lazy Murray River go by.

Anne on our walk to show us where the Darling and the Murray meet.