Imogen Foxell

@imogenfoxell.bsky.social

1035 Followers 412 Following

Artist, author, lexicographer, solo parent Oxford, UK (she/her) www.imogenfoxell.com

Illustration for the owl and the pussycat in paint and collage - the owl and pussycat are dancing in front of a big full moon, while turkey and pig eat mince and quince with a very curly handled runcible spoon
Illustration for the owl and the pussycat in paint and collage - the owl and pussycat are getting married, officiated by the turkey on his hill, and witnessed by the pig holding a shilling, surrounded by Bong trees
Illustration for the owl and the pussycat in paint and collage - the owl and pussycat are in their boat, looking through a telescope towards the land where the bong tree grows, where the pig is standing admiring the ring in his nose
Illustration for the owl and the pussycat in paint and collage - the owl and pussycat are asleep in their boat in the middle of a dark blue sea full of stars, waves, fish, a bottle
Illustration for the owl and the pussycat in paint and collage - the owl is serenading the cat on a small guitar
An illustration of the owl and the pussycat by Edward Lear, done in a mixture of collage and paint. They're at the beach, loading the pea green boat with honey, money, a guitar, a rubber ring, a telescope etc
A collage showing an illustrated title page of "the Owl and the pussycat" by Edward Lear, illustrated by Imogen Foxell. It's done in a mixture of collage and paint, and shows an excited pussycat and owl holding an oar, running across a green landscape in front of a rising sun
Sketch of a red and green narrowboat with a perkily angled chimney on the canal under yellow willow branches
Sketches of our second theatre trip - a big success (Hey Little Bird at the Pegasus theatre) - toddler pays attention and there are hats and disco lights, an owl, balloons and a carnival!
Sketches of a freezing cold day with toddler and my mum - visit the market, watch people make flatbread in café, bake (toddler only interested in chocolate drops), find missing toys and bits of old dust, cuddle up and watch Duggee, fill freezer with soup and curry
Sketch of St Barnabas church tower, rooftops and wintery tree and sky
Sketches of when I had a sore finger on new year's day and all the doctors and pharmacies were closed and it was raining. But thankfully out local aquarium (the goldfish bowl) was open and toddler was coping well with partially giving up breastfeeding (thanks to chocolate bribes) and we went to my neighbour's party and were the two youngest people there
Sketch of a Christmas tree
Sketches of Thanksgiving dinner - friends carving turkey, multiple pies, teacups and a curly dog (caption: made it despite getting stuck in Birmingham New Street for an hour)
Sketch of the toddler's first play - the Elves and the Shoemaker. Toddler liked the lighting rig and the bit where they blew bubbles - I liked the bit where the dog made a spreadsheet
Sketches from a live nativity event with my toddler: he's more interested than tinsel than live animals; he has a go at crafts and decorating biscuits; I enjoy a tiny child's attempt to pronounce "Quirinius" and a small king called Chloe; I feel unsure about this early introduction to Christianity, but I also tear up during Away in a Manger; all the Christmas fun pales into insignificance for toddler compared to a stick he found outside
Photo of toddler (face obscured) dressed as an orange cat and holding the book "All the cats" by Nicola Kent
Sketch of all the meals I cooked one lunchtime (in pots and neatly packed up in freezer boxes): leek and potato soup, tomato sauce, cheesy pasta sauce
Sketch of a beech tree with a few remaining autumn leaves
A sketch of a toddler walking through some leaves, mostly obscured by various scribblings and messy prints of autumn leaves. Caption: this was meant to be an atmospheric drawing of S. wandering through yellow leaves, but it was hijacked
Sketches of a trip to Science Oxford, where toddler enoys shooting scarfs up pipes, amazing waterplay, and liivng out his dreams of being an electrician; we bring chalk to the playground which all the children play with except my toddler; toddler doesn't enjoy first firework encounter (he's on my shoulders going "go back in house go back in house) but he does want to talk about them in his cot
Sketches of toddler's nighttime diversionary tactics: turning off lights so he can 'bang into things in the dark', counting stars, pretending to cut my fingernails and hide the imaginary clippings around the room, continuing to pretend to be at Reading festival, and apparently his toy Mummy Owl needs to bang into things too
Sketches of the suspected scabies incident - I've got an itchy back (toddler is fine); doctor asks if toddler has been biting me and then suggest scabies (yuk!); I am distracted from work by reading about sealing everything in plastic bags; I cover toddler in cream while he's distracted by telly - it's surprisingly fine; I wash EVERYTHING on hygiene pluys setting and seal it in plastic bags
A sketch of me wheeling happy toddler in pram during a massive rainstorm, while drainpipes pour water into the gutter - all coloured in with blue watercolour paint (partly applied by the toddler)
Sketches of "my terrible life" - toddler has forgotten how to sleep (I am depicted kneeling next to him with sore nipples sobbing "PLEASE go to sleep") - relatedly we both have colds and he has a tooth coming; also, my work dictionary software is broken and attempts to fix it make it worse; and while drawing this I allowed toddler to play with baby monitor and he unplugged it, so now I can't see him
Sketches of a silly night - I have a cold, the washing machine is full of poo, I'm meant to be packing, toddler won't go to sleep (wants to find buttons on duvet, discuss ferry boat, goes to sleep, wakes up again and needs feeding to sleep)
Sketch of yellow- and green-roofed market stalls, a woman in a yellow summer dress wandering past holding a drink
Sketch of travel home from holiday (done between Eastleigh and Winchester at 21.53) - leave amid much chaos; 30 minutes car nap is all we get; ferry is notable for funnels, "funny man" (magician), pom bears on the deck, posh fish and chip restaurant; finally get on train but toddler not keen on sleeping (crawling around going "mind the gap"); but then he sleeps until we get home about midnight!
Black and white sketches of travel with toddler: I am so nervous; eat lots of crisps on train; explain Reading festival (toddler is thrilled at the concept of loud music); eat fish and chips and admire beer taps; get stuck in a playground; panic about buses; run around ferry port and getreprimanded for abandoning our pram; utter failure to get toddler to sleep in pram; finally on board overnight ferry - can't assemble travel cot despite toddler's enthusiastic help; he's still awake at 10.30 singing "dum dum dum" in cot
Five hand-painted animal Russian dolls: bear, fox, cat, owl, bee
Five blank Russian dolls with pencilled designs of animals on them
Sketches of toddler's second birthday celebrations - owl-shaped chocolate cake, extraordinary number of presents (mostly owls), most of the family, pretty much all the potato-y/breadcrumb-y snacks you can think of (hash browns, waffles, crisps, fishfingers), slightly too much transport, an entire model village (Bekonscot) which the toddler is ignoring in favour of a broken drainpipe
Sketches of toddler and baby hanging out in garden in sunhats, a sandpit table, and a smart-looking tabby cat
Sketch of toddler in a sunhat and my mum playing next to a fallen tree - toddler is saying "owl nest tree fall down"
Black and white sketch of tall pine tree, overshadowing bus and belisha beacon
Black and white sketch of toddler's favourite toys: radio, bike pump ,whisk, hoover, straw (that he pretends is a screwdriver)
Sketches of good things in toddler life (running in graveyard, fishfingers, dancing with the radio) and not so good things (hairwashing, terrifying-yet-fascinating big fan, sleeping in a hot room)
Sketches of memorable trips: waterfall, ferry trip, jumping on drains; and memorable meals (mostly carbs): hash browns, chips, peach and coconut scone, whatever poisoned me yesterday (could have been huge lotus cake)
Sketches of journey from Oxford to Lake Windermere - after various disasters (soap in eye, missing bus...) we eat hula hoops on the train; we find my parents and amazingly S. sleeps in car and wakes up to play with stones at a garden centre; things then get very screamy (despite repeated applications of Yellow Submarine); we make an emergency supermarket stop (S. is hyper and removes all jam from the shelf), then eventually reach the lake and the house which is entirely composed on stairs!
Sketch of guitarist and trombonist in the playground (playing "if you're silly and you know it blow a raspberry"), surrounded by parents and kids with various instruments
Sketch of graveyard - spreading black pine and gravestones, with a woman (a friend of mine) sitting on war memorial sketching in the foreground
Sketches of chaos with toddler and two other small boys - playing with bubbles and stones in garden, chasing toy cars around a rocking horse, watching telly, eating a lot of pasta
Sketches of toddler enjoying fountain at Botanical gardens, making himself useful doing the hoovering, playing with lego like a child, and eating a giant "brookie" brownie
Sketch of toddler with tousled hair asleep on a big bed
Black and white sketch of beach and building with little tower at Aldeburgh - done hurriedly in the ten minutes when the rain had stopped and the toddler was having a bath!
Sketches of my mum holding the toddler on a pebbly beach with fishing boats and lots of seagulls
A collage on a bright blue background, showing a number of brightly coloured ships of different sizes sailing through swirly fluffy clouds, sun, moon, and shoals of fish. The largest boat contains a variety of fantastical animals, sheltered by umbrellas.
Collage work in progress photo of details yellow/orange/bronze sun and swirly clouds on blue background
Three sketches in black and white of a woman (my sister in law) breastfeeding a small baby with sticky-up hair
Sketches of a silly day: cycle to work then decide I'm getting a cold and go back home; lose a bolt from my bicycle and eventually get it fixed in second bike shop I try; set off for nursery without the pram, so run all the way home and back to nursery again...
Sketch of young apple tree in bloom plus a butterfly and a bee
Ink and watercolour drawing of me (black plait, wheeling bicycle) opening a blue front door with a key
Sketch of a blue and red narrowboat under a vibrantly green willow tree
Sketch of a shreddies packet, a weetabix packet, a bran flakes packet
Sketches of highlights from museum of natural history (from a toddler point of view): the floor, the stairs, the fire extinguishers, the safety cones, the card rack in the gift shop
Sketches of things child is upset about today: wanted to read a book about cats but I didn't know which of our many books about cats he meant; in the playground I suggested he play with sometihng other than a hedge; we were in a trouser shop (fair enough); he only wanted to eat curry with my tiny cat spoon so he could pretend to feed the cat
Sketches of angry toddler, because: he can't remember how to lie down in his cot, I took some fishfinger out of his mouth, washing up liquid bottle not doing what he wants it to, wants pasta and wants it NOW
Photo of butternut squash carved into a Halloween lantern with a cat face on it
A sketch of a massive pile of washing up in and around the sink, in blue
Sketches of a day with toddler: woken up by being bounced on; pleasant trip to the playground; S. runs off in goldfish shop and falls down a staircase - but is astonishingly fine!