Painter and draughtsman, born in Woodsetts, Yorkshire. He studied at Barnsley College of Art and Design, 1985–6, gained an honours degree from Brighton Polytechnic, 1986–9, then did a postgraduate diploma at Royal Academy Schools, 1989–92. For 1993–5 he was appointed Fellow Commoner in the Creative Field at Trinity College, Cambridge; from 1998–03 was a police constable in the Leicestershire Police Force; and from 2003–4 was Leverhulme Fellowship artist-in-residence at Warwick University. He won a number of awards, later ones including the Royal Academy Schools Young Masters Prize, 1992; BP Portrait Award Travel Prize, 2001; and Leverhulme Trust Award, 2003. Parker was interested in English folk songs, nursery rhymes, fairy tales, Morris Dancers and similar subjects “to emphasize and satirize the social ills of his time”.