Isabel Crabtree Parker (BA Hons, Fine Art, First Class) was born in Kuching, Sarawak, East Malaysia to British parents. A postgraduate student undertaking MA Fine Art at Lancaster University and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, ecology and the environment fascinate her, frequently forming 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 Southeast Asia Research. Her solo most recent journal publications include a publication for issue 13 of Consilience and a paper (In Press) for the International Journal of Education Through Art with more publications forthcoming. 

 

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Isabel's multimedia practice frequently focuses on the environment and ecology, integrating 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 the gnarled roots and cracked bark of trees. Combined with the velvety threads of moss her artwork carries incredible tactility and detail that reveals the detail of each organism, providing a sensory window into the complexity of the natural world.