Isabel Crabtree Parker is a UK-based artist, living in Dorset, who works across painting, drawing and textiles. A graduate of Arts University Bournemouth (BA Hons Fine Art, First Class) she also holds an MA in Fine Art from Lancaster University and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. A fascination with ecology and the environment  frequently forms the focus of her multi-media art practice of flora, woodlands and rainforests.

 

Commissioned to illustrate a book on Indigenous folk stories from West Malaysia and Costa Rica, prior to that Isabel was a junior researcher on an ethnographic study of Indigenous communities in Malaysia. This resulted in a co-authored ethnographic book and academic papers in the Journal of Sociology and Development, and the journal of Southeast Asia Research. Her solo most recent journal publications include a publication for issue 13 of Consilience and a 2024 paper for the International Journal of Education Through Art, with more academic publications forthcoming. 

 

​​Isabel's multimedia practice integrates drawing and painting to relay the intricate complexity of natural forms within her art. She also incorporates textiles into her work to create three-dimensional, sculptural artworks that interact with natural settings, creating a synergistic relationship between art and the environment. Photography is essential to her art practice, functioning as an investigative tool to document sites and ecological phenomena, to identify the individual characteristics of her subject, like gnarled roots and the cracked bark of trees. Her art practice, which is united by a methodical approach and careful concentration employed across media, provides a sensory window into the complexity of the natural world.