Born in Croydon, she studied at the Byam Shaw School for Drawing and Painting. She began to exhibit in 1919, living in Croydon, where she was art mistress at her old school, Croydon High School for Girls. In 1935 she decided to study further at the FORBES SCHOOL of Painting in Newlyn. During that time, she visited Polperro. 

In the late 1940s and early 1950s, after her retirement, she continued to spend time in Cornwall, producing a number of attractive paintings of local fishing ports. Her last Royal Academy exhibit was 'A Cornish Lane in January' in 1951.

After her mother's death in 1955, Isabel moved to Worthing, where she died.