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“This particular case has just captured the nation,” she says.
It’s like a full-on folkloric story.
Her drawing of Patterson will soon become synonymous with the Mushroom Trial, thrusting Lester into the spotlight, too.
Erin Patterson was found guilty of killing her estranged husband’s parents, Don and Gail Patterson, and Gail’s sister, Heather Wilkinson. She was also convicted of the attempted murder of Heather’s husband, Ian. Source: AFP / Martin Keep
Becoming a courtroom artist
Notorious gangland figure Tony Mokbel is among the other high-profile figures Lester has produced courtroom sketches of. Source: AAP / Anita Lester
Cameras are banned from most Australian courtrooms to protect those on trial, along with witnesses and the jury.
Lester had merely two minutes to sketch Patterson during her initial court appearance at the 2023 filing hearing, but had more time when Patterson testified in June.
Capturing ‘curmudgeoned’ Patterson
Unlike those around her who are hungry for information, Lester tries to block out details that can be “quite interesting”, “full-on”, and “a little bit traumatising”.
It’s like kind of a meditation. You have to try really hard not to listen to what is actually going on in the courtroom.
Two hours after getting the call to come into court, her drawing is on online news sites.
When Lester first saw Patterson in court in 2023, she only had two minutes to draw her. Source: AAP / Anita Lester
Lester is one of the first artists allowed to draw digitally in an Australian courtroom.
“The first time I was in court, there was someone who had this amazing little portable station, but I was looking at him half the time thinking, ‘what a nightmare’.”
“Perhaps why this particular drawing that I’ve done of Erin has been so visceral for people is because I captured her misery.”
“I was sitting there and she looked so curmudgeoned the whole time.”
Anita Lester focuses on capturing the emotions of the subjects of her courtroom sketches, rather than copying exactly what she sees. Source: SBS News / Rania Yallop
So Lester chose to exaggerate the emotions she saw on the stand.
“You don’t cheat the details,” she says.
I think you have to be as honest as you can.
“I wanted to take away any distractions.”
Balancing storytelling and sensitivity
“When the lines are a bit blurred, you are privy to seeing something more vulnerable and almost childlike.”
Anita Lester is a multidisciplinary artist based in Melbourne. Source: SBS News / Rania Yallop
Lester says the weirdest part of the job is being noticed by the accused, often being stared at the whole time.
“It’s wild, it’s two hours of my life [that] has become the thing that I am now associated with, which is so weird.”
