It was a dark and stormy night! (I love that line!) Actually, it was true. Severe storm warnings had been issued for the Houston area again and was due to hit our neck of the woods in the wee hours of this morning. Therefore, I was wide awake between 2 and 3:30 waiting and wondering. The storm didn’t hit us until around 8 AM while I was enjoying a cup of hot tea and sweet cornbread for breakfast.

During that hour and one-half of the night, along with my wondering, my mind wandered to thoughts of our new Facebook Group page, “Whatever Is Lovely” and what I wanted to share on it when the sun rose….hopefully.

For a few of you who have been in one of my Bible classes, you’ll say “I’ve heard that before, Adele.” But I know you don’t mind hearing it again:

In my Christian life, nothing has changed me more for the better,

than reading through God’s Word…over and over again.

I thought and wondered why I find it so wonderful to read His Word regularly. Maybe it was the time of night, or the fact that I was fairly relaxed, but the answer came quickly: By reading God’s Holy Word I’m getting to know Him better. That’s it. I’m getting to know Him better every day. What a joy it is.

Feeling pleased that I had answered my own question so quickly, I realized I was almost humming the song, “Getting To Know You” out loud. Oops! Careful there; David is trying to sleep. When I remembered the song is from “The King and I“, I thought, how appropriate…..Jesus is the King of Kings.

The words could not be more fitting about how I feel about our Lord Jesus Christ:

Getting to Know You

Getting to know you
Getting to know all about you
Getting to like you
Getting to hope you like me

Getting to know you
Putting it my way
But nicely
You are precisely
My cup of tea

Getting to know you
Getting to feel free and easy
When I am with you
Getting to know what to say

Haven’t you noticed
Suddenly I’m bright and breezy?
Because of all the beautiful and new
Things I’m learning about you
Day by day.

From “The King and I”….Music and Lyrics by Rodgers and Hammerstein

‘Til He Shouts!

“Cozy Cafe” 

8″ x 8″ oil painting on museum quality panel. Artist: Adele Bower

Doing a painting is interesting. First I have an idea for a painting. Then I plan it; the colors I will use, the size panel as a surface, maybe even the title……..in no time at all I have created in my imagination my greatest painting EVER.  I think, “This will be my big breakthrough, I’ll be famous, I’ll be contacted to teach workshops, hold TV interviews, offered a big time gallery showing.” You know….the usual. Soon I can’t wait to get started.

First things first…..I select the size of panel (a basic necessity….you MUST have a surface to paint on). I find references to suit my idea……a photo of flowers, umbrellas, chairs, trees and make a quick sketch on the panel, using a light pigment or a pastel pencil. Very good. ” This is going to be a great painting”, I say to myself. “I’ll start right now”. It’s about 5 in the evening and I’m tired, but….I’m so excited.

I should know better. While in art school often it was necessary to work on my homework assignment well into the night. The next morning as I packed up my portfolio to go to class, I noticed what a truly bad job I had done on that assignment; it even had smudged fingerprints around the edges. Too late, time to go.

But this evening it would be different….this idea is too great to wait. So I got started.

After painting for over an hour I was so disgusted , I seriously considered giving up painting altogether, then taking up basket weaving or making ceramic ash trays, but I have dozens of baskets already and I don’t smoke. I cleaned up the palette, washed my brushes, and stomped into the den to watch TV and complain.

 Morning comes. I fed the cats, made a hearty breakfast for my husband and I (sweet cornbread and hot tea…. coffee for him). I threw some clothes in the washer, brushed my hair and teeth and promised myself to get dressed as soon as I get the first color layer down. Still in my PJs, I finished it. Better!

I’m glad I started up again.  I don’t think there is much of a market for baskets or ceramic ash trays……..is there?

I’ll definitely let you know when the galleries and TV hosts begin to call.

For Information about the Original Painting of “Cozy Cafe”

For Information about Fine Art Prints of “Cozy Cafe”

Have you ever been in a real outhouse? I have, and so has my husband…..way back when. One of the vivid memories of my Grandparents home in Galveston County, Tesxas was their outhouse………. in cold weather. That impression stuck in my memory. Now every time I go into our pretty, star-themed “powder room” right off our kitchen in the winter (for Houston that means it’s way down to 60 degrees outside), the powder room is cold. For some strange reason our builder did not put heat in that room.

Isn’t this an art related blog? What does my outhouse have to do with art?  The first thing you see when entering our outhouse is the window. I designed it and had a company install it with stained glass overlay. See, that’s art, isn’t it? I love our cats and adorable cat frames (with stars on them), so what a perfect place to display them!

I also like snowmen and I have a fairly nice collection of them. This little guy was purchased for us by our daughter-in-law one Christmas in Disney World. He has stars on him, so he made the cut and stays there year round, keeping guard over my star-shaped wire basket of stars from Pier One. Above it all is a postcard from the Vatican, yes, in Rome, sent to me by a friend while she was visiting there. (However, no stars.) The beautiful golden cross was also a gift. Sitting on the left on the shelf is a stack of shiny, gold gift boxes (with stars), all tied up with a wide ribbon covered with stars, with two sparkly stars dangling from the bow.

Hanging from a fragrant bouquet of dried eucalyptus is yet another star. And of course, the soap dispenser is decorated with stars.

Right now I’m working on a sign to hang on the door to our powder room. I’ll use this patriotic star which was a gift from a good friend. She had visited the outhouse before and noticed a theme. Very observant of her. I think I managed to write “star” a dozen times in this blog. I like stars.