Blossom in the Desert: Reflections of Faith in the Art and Writings of Lilias Trotter [Hardcover]

Lilias Trotter (Author), Miriam Huffman Rockness (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2007

In Lilias Trotter's biography, A Passion for the Impossible, you learned that she became a missionary in Algeria during the Victorian era, and, as a British woman, faced seemingly insurmountable challenges sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. You also learned that she was one of England's promising artists, a career she gave up to follow God's call to take the light, life, and love of Jesus Christ to the Arabs of Northern Africa. But Lilias never abandoned her artistic talent, and now you can enjoy page after page of inspiring artwork, with all the vivid colors and characer of the Algerian landscape, complete with her own thoughts and spiritual wisdom. A Blossom in the Desert is truly a book that belongs on your coffee table, to give you encouragement time and again as you ponder Lilias's challenges and how she persevered to inspire the song, ""Turn Your Eyes upon Jesus."" This hardcover gift book is 240 pages of full color, inspirational art, and meditations, with a satin bookmark.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Sadly, the name of Lilias Trotter is no longer remembered by many people, except those 19th-century art experts who recall her as the painter who caused art critic John Ruskin to rhapsodically change his mind about the ability of women to be artists. Though all but forgotten now as an artist, Trotter (1853–1928) is venerated as a pioneering Christian missionary—she founded and funded a mission in North Africa where she served for nearly 40 years. In this gift book, Rockness, author of the Trotter biography A Passion for the Impossible, brings together Trotter's dual lives—promising artist in her 20s, devoted missionary in her 30s and beyond—by pairing Trotter's paintings and sketches with devotional thoughts from her journals and many books, including Parables of the Cross. Trotter was clearly a deep thinker with a poetic soul, and her paintings practically shimmer on the page. While they match up perfectly with her devotions, the scripture references can sometimes feel less relevant or tacked on; it would also be helpful if the source or context of each Trotter quote were identified. Still, this lovely book is a feast for the eyes and the spirit. (Nov.)
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About the Author

Miriam Huffman Rockness is the author of the acclaimed biography of Lilias Trotter, A Passion for the Impossible. She is a graduate of Wheaton College and also author of Keep These Things and Home: God's Design.She and her husband live in Florida.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Discovery House Publishers (October 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1572932562
• ISBN-13: 978-1572932562
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #357,740 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars We've Waited Years to See Lilias Trotter's Art, April 13, 2008

By 

Noel H. Piper (Minneapolis, MN United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Blossom in the Desert: Reflections of Faith in the Art and Writings of Lilias Trotter (Hardcover)

"Did you know your dream has come true? There's a book of Lilias Trotter's art now--A Blossom in the Desert," I emailed a friend last week. Miriam Rockness, who edited this book, earlier wrote the book that introduced me to Lilias Trotter, A Passion for the Impossible. I was so inspired by her story that I included it in Faithful Women and Their Extraordinary God.

We who admire Lilias Trotter have waited a long time actually to see her artwork. Until now, it was hidden away in the Ashmolean Museum of Oxford University and in the archives of the Arab World Ministries. We owe a huge debt to Rockness for laboring to bring these exquisite works to the public.

Lilias Trotter was an upper-class English woman of the Victorian era whose drawings and water colors were admired by John Ruskin, the art authority of the day. He foresaw for her a life of glory and fame if she devoted herself to her art.

Instead, she turned her back on that dream and followed the calling of God to Algeria, arriving in 1888 and dying there 40 years later. As so often happens, she discovered that God wasn't asking her to give up her talent, but to use it in a different place for different purposes.

Among other things, she often illustrated her journal entries and the letters she sent home with her artwork, a visual treasure of North Africa as it was then. She also wrote several small books of meditations, often springing from her observations of nature and always illustrated with her drawings.

A Blossom in the Desert is filled with Lilias Trotter's love of God and of the place and people he gave her in Algeria. With the eye of a true artist, she sees God's fingerprint everywhere she looks.

"Oh, the desert is lovely in its restfulness. The great brooding stillness over and through everything is so full of God. One does not wonder that He used to take His people out into the wilderness to teach them."

I find here a passage that remains with me years after first reading it:

"'I am come into deep waters' took on new meaning this morning. It started with perplexing matters concerning the future. Then it dawned that shallow waters were a place where you can neither sink nor swim, but in deep waters it is one or the other: "Waters to swim in"--not to float in. Swimming is the intense, most strenuous form of motion--all of you is involved in it--and every inch of you is in abandonment of rest upon the water that bears you up."

This book is a treasure.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A rare treasure, February 5, 2008

By 

Betty McJunkin (Snoqualmie, WA, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Blossom in the Desert: Reflections of Faith in the Art and Writings of Lilias Trotter (Hardcover)

This lovely book is one that you will treasure! The pages include Lilias Trotter's beautiful watercolor paintings and her deeply edifying writings accompany each picture. Her spiritual insight was truly a gift from God and she was able to teach truths through the life cycle of plants, trees, seeds - the natural consequences of life and death. This book is one that is priceless, one that you will read over and over if you want to grow closer to God through Jesus Christ.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Spiritual depth and beauty, August 5, 2008

By 

L. Wiggins - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Blossom in the Desert: Reflections of Faith in the Art and Writings of Lilias Trotter (Hardcover)

My first introduction to Lilias Trotter came when I read Faithful Women and Their Extraordinary God by Noel Piper. I remember thinking at the time how wonderful it would be to actually see some of Trotter's art and read her writings. Sadly, her books are out of print and her paintings and sketchbooks are hidden away in the Print Room of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, England. Miriam Huffman Rockness, however, set out on the long, arduous journey of finding Trotter's journals, diaries, out-of-print books, and art. She has given us a gift in A Blossom in the Desert: Reflections of Faith in the Art and Writings of Lilias Trotter.

A Blossom in the Desert begins with a testimony from Rockness of how she first came to know, admire, and seek out the work of Lilias Trotter to fulfill her vision of seeing Trotter in print again. It is a story of God's providence. After reading this collection, I am convinced God is pleased with the unearthing of Trotter's work and will be glorified if more of His people follow her exemplary life. Trotter's mentor promised that "she would be the greatest living painter and do things that would be Immortal." In Trotter's mind, "to be Immortal" would mean she would have to "give herself up to art." She wrote, "I see clear as daylight now, I cannot give myself to painting in the way he means and continue to 'seek first the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness.'" She forsook all the fame and riches of this world, the approval of her friends and family, to follow Christ in ministering to young Muslim girls and women in northern Africa.

It was her habit to spend the early hours of every morning in a quiet spot outside, communing with God through His Word and His Creation. While the quotes shared in this book demonstrate Trotter's spiritual depth and ability to synthesize God's word and creation to teach truth, her sketches and paintings demonstrate her eye for the unspeakable beauty of God's creation. "Stamped on every page of her diaries and journals is a woman fully immersed in the practical realities of everyday living, even as she is totally engaged in assimilating these realities through an eternal perspective. It is from the tensions of these two realities, the seen and the unseen, that hard spiritual truths are hammered out." Alongside a meditation of Jesus as the Living Water you will find a delicate watercolor of an African water well, bubbling up from the ground. I like to think that daisies portrayed in the book were the very ones that "spoke" to Trotter of "the need of deliberately holding back everything that would crowd our souls and stifle the freedom of God's light and air." Rockness organizes the sketches, paintings and quotes around three themes: The Light of Jesus, The Life of Jesus, and The Love of Jesus, three things Trotter lived for others to come and see.

A Blossom in the Desert is a beautiful collection, one that I will treasure. Though it isn't designed to be a devotional per se, I've used it in that way for the past few weeks. It would also make an ideal gift.