Throughout his career Rob Kesseler has worked with representations of the natural world, and plants and flowers in particular. Initially inspired by medieval stylistic illustrations, his work progressed into a colourful and sometimes humorous commentary on the way in which plant material has been appropriated by the decorative arts. More recently he has sought to draw upon the potential of contemporary botanical science to create images that lie somewhere between science and symbolism, in which the complexities of representing plants are concentrated into mesmeric visual statements.

In 2001 he was awarded a three year fellowship by NESTA (The National Endowment for Science Technology and the Arts) to work at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.