Spudvilas grew up in Camperdown, Victoria. She left school at 16 and worked at the local newspaper where she learned graphic design. She trained in advertising layout during her employment in an advertising agency. She studied Fine Arts and exhibited in group and solo exhibitions. She has been one of Australia's most prolific and successful cover illustrators.
Spudvilas works mainly in oils and coloured inks. She was a finalist in the Portia Geach Portrait Prize (1995), the Doug Moran Portrait Prize, and her portrait of children's illustrator and author, Leigh Hobbs, was a finalist in the Archibald Prize. She has also worked as a courtroom artist with the Melbourne media.
In 2000, she was illustrator in Residence at Charleville, Queensland and in 2002, was a May Gibbs Literature Trust Fellow in Adelaide. Spudvilas travelled to China with
Li Cunxin and studied Chinese painting in preparation for illustrating
The Peasant Prince.