To dismiss Foxwell’s work as merely "decorative" would be a mistake. There is a melancholic undertow to her best pieces. She paints the edge of things—the border where land meets sea, where cultivated field meets wild forest.
This "edge" is a metaphor for memory and time. Her empty chairs on screened porches, her unmoored skiffs, and her deserted beach paths speak to the viewer’s own sense of nostalgia. She asks: Who was just here? Where did they go? The absence of human figures in most of her work makes the viewer the protagonist, inviting a profound, personal quiet.
Carol Foxwell works primarily in pastel and oil, moving between the two mediums with a mastery that belies her quiet demeanor. Her pastel work is particularly renowned. She layers pigments with a tactile intensity, using the tooth of the paper to create texture—the rough bark of a pine tree, the sparkle of light on a rippled creek. carol foxwell
Critics often note her use of the "dominant note." Foxwell will often saturate a canvas with a single key tone—a hazy lavender, a pale ochre, or a cool cerulean—and then scatter accents of complementary color like jewels across the surface. The result is cohesive without being monotonous, vibrant without being loud.
Writing a tribute to Carol Foxwell would be incomplete without addressing the friction. The Eastern Shore is a place of deep tradition, including the poultry industry. For years, environmentalists and poultry farmers were at war over manure runoff. To dismiss Foxwell’s work as merely "decorative" would
Foxwell navigated this minefield by focusing on practicality. She worked with the Delaware-Maryland Agribusiness Association to create manure transport programs—moving excess chicken litter from the densely packed watershed to inland farms where it could be used safely without drowning the bay.
She also faced the "sea level rise deniers." As a coastal scientist, she knew the Atlantic was rising. Rather than argue climate models, she focused on resilience—building living shorelines (using plants and stone) instead of bulkheads, which she famously called "the walls of defeat." This "edge" is a metaphor for memory and time
To understand Carol Foxwell, you have to look at the geography of the Eastern Shore. Born and raised on the Delmarva Peninsula, Foxwell grew up with saltwater in her veins. For decades, she worked not as a distant academic, but as a hands-on restoration practitioner.
Foxwell is best known for her tenure with the Maryland Coastal Bays Program (MCBP) , where she served as a key restoration coordinator. But her title never fully captured what she actually did. To the watermen, she was a fair negotiator. To the farmers, she was a bridge to understanding runoff regulations. To the school children, she was the enthusiastic woman with the minnow traps who taught them why sea grass matters.
In 2023, the conservation world took notice when Carol Foxwell was awarded the prestigious “Coastal Steward Award” by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. The award cited her "relentless pursuit of pragmatic solutions to nitrogen pollution and her unique ability to align disparate community interests."