O'Connor, (Ursula) Anne (1939–2021)

Born in Sydney, New South Wales, on 17 November 1939; died in Mount Martha, Victoria, on 7 August 2021.

Largely self-taught, Anne painted all her life but joined the Botanical Art School of Melbourne in 1994 to specialise in botanical watercolours.

She exhibited in various group exhibitions including at the RHS London Flower Show, Hunt Institute USA, National Gallery of Victoria, the National Herbarium, and Villa Mulberry, Eltham Wiregrass, Dickerson and Papillon Galleries in Melbourne.

Awards Anne received include the Jenny Phillips’ Botanical Art Award (2000), an RHS Gold Medal (2000), both for Vireya Rhododendrons, and the Noel’s Gallery Award (1995).

Anne’s work was selected for inclusion in The Highgrove Florilegium which recorded, for the Prince of Wales Trust, the plants grown in the gardens at Highgrove.

Her work is represented in the Shirley Sherwood collection, at the RHS Lindley Library in London and in private collections in Australia, England, Canada and the United States. She specialised in painting vireyas, the “tropical” rhododendron."

Example painting: Rhododendron viriosum

Sources: Anne O'Connor, pers. comm. (January 2007); Obituary, The Age newspaper (18 August 2021).