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Feb 21, 2012 | Carol Muegge

No Resting on Laurels for St. Peter's Artist

Billye Faust“I’m not through living yet,” so says the vibrant and talented Billye Faust. Her days are busy with multiple projects but her favorite is painting Texas landscapes and still lifes.  Painting “brings me great joy as well as new challenges,” Faust said.

 

Faust grew up during the Depression so art lessons were in short supply but she had an artistic brother who was a big influence on her becoming an artist.  With no formal training, but talented in drawing caricatures, Faust volunteered to be on her high school and Sam Houston State University yearbook staffs.  While at SHSU, Faust married her husband, Bill, and they settled in Houston where she worked as the secretary in the couple’s electrical contracting company. She later took art classes at the University of Houston and took private lessons through the years.

 

The hills and bluebonnets of Washington County called to the Fausts and in 1962 they bought 40 acres, moving to Brenham permanently in 1995 when they retired. Bill died in 2002 and Billye turned to her faith and her art to start this new part of her life. Cursillo brought spiritual renewal and the Brenham Fine Art League brought art lessons and many new friends. Faust said her Art League friends, the “Therapy Sisters,” meet regularly for lunch and are a lot of support for one another.

 

She once received a birthday card that said, “Getting Old Depends on the Friends You Keep,” and she definitely has cohorts as vibrant and active as she is. A few years ago, deciding the farm was too much to take care of, Faust moved to retirement community in Brenham where her circle of friends has grown even more. 

 

As she explained, “Brenham is full of Type A women who are involved in the community.”  She attends a monthly breakfast where she and her buddies hear speakers and sip mimosas, she exercises three times a week, goes to Bible Study, is an active supporter of the local library, stays active at St. Peter’s, corresponds with her two college-aged grandsons and still finds time to create beautiful oil paintings. She was the 2011 Featured Artist at the St. Peter’s Art Show and Sale and attended her first Abundant Living Conference at Camp Allen in February.

 

When one of Faust’s new friends asked another friend where she was a particular weekend and was not at all surprised to find out that Faust was deer hunting with her grandsons. The friend knew then that she fit right in with the rest of their group!