Rosser, Celia Elizabeth (1930 - )

Monash University Botanical Artist. World renowned for her painting of the genus Banksia.

Rosser began painting Australian wildflowers early in her career. In 1970, she was appointed Science Faculty Artist at Monash University, Melbourne, and was awarded a Medal of the Order Australia in 1995 for her service to botanical art. She is internationally known for her botanical art and especially for her three-volume series The Banksias, with accompanying text by Alex George (1981, 1988, 2000), containing life-size watercolour images of all known banksia species, which took over 25 years to complete. In 2001, Banksia rosserae was named after her.

References: The Banksias: Watercolours by Celia Rosser Monash University, Melbourne1993; W.Blunt & W.T.Stearn The Art of Botanical Illustration 2^nd edn (1994); S.Sherwood Contemporary Botanical Artists (1996); H.Hewson Australia - 300 Years of Botanical Illustration (1999)

Source: extracted from: George, Alex (2011) A Banksia Album – two hundred years of botanical art, National Library of Australia, Canberra.
Portrait: photo by M.Fagg, ANBG