Cirrus@Austlit

Artist and illustrator Ritva Voutila was born in Nokia, Finland and studied art at the School of Art and Design in Helsinki. She first moved to Australia in 1968 but left Australia in 1971 and lived in Spain for ten years. In 1981 she returned to Australia living in Sydney, New South Wales. In 1983 she began working full time as a freelance artist in jewellery design, graphic design and advertising before illustrating her first children's book, 101 Excuses for Not Doing Homework (1990) by Carly Little. Ritva Voutila studied art at Paddington Art School and the Julian Ashton School of Arts and urban design at Sydney University. She also gained a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from Macquarie University, Sydney.

As well as illustrating her own work and works by Australian authors, Ritva Voutila illustrated works by overseas authors including illustrations for Mexican author Alberto Forcada's Pequeño cuento de horror y otros relatos (2004), The Little Mermaid and Other Stories (1999) by Hans Christian Andersen and The Selfish Giant (2012) by Oscar Wilde. Her illustrations for children's books also include the Storylands Lost Island series and other school readers for Blake Education.