Night and Day on Sandhill Prairie Farm
MIXED MEDIA ARTWORK BY BETONY COONS AND KATIE FLINDALL

Showing June 25th - July 25th
Free Admission • Open to the Public

About the Artists:

Betony Coons

            Betony Coons (Katie's sister) grew up in a barn, on an apple orchard, 30 minutes outside of Hutchinson, Kansas. Puppet theaters, zip lines, tight rope walks, a functional stage were her families pastimes. Her entire childhood was one whirlwind of living and breathing adventure; art and creation.

            After finishing her BA in painting from the University of Northern Colorado, Betony taught art to High School Students for 10 years and made a name for herself as a muralist, painting multiple large scale pieces in the Northern Colorado area.

            Now, as a homeschooling mother of three spunky girls and a little boy in Greeley, Colorado, Betony finds her parenting, painting, and teaching intertwined and constantly guiding her to make beautiful things and to bring those around her into the process. Be it sewing Halloween costumes, painting murals, collaborating with her husband’s song writing, teaching workshops out of her home studio, or letting her kids paint on her canvases, Betony’s work encompasses bits and pieces from her life. Her paintings are created through layering collected papers, acrylic paint, and often wood cut-outs to create colorful worlds steeped in memory and story.

Katie Flindall

            Katie Flindall (Betony's sister) grew up on Sandhill Prairie Farm in central Kansas where she was homeschooled with her four siblings. She spent much of her time drawing, painting and walking the prairie surrounding the family farm. Creativity, play and an abundance of unstructured time set the groundwork for Katie's love of nature and the arts.

            Katie attended Hutchinson's own ArtisTree for her early arts training, later studying at the National Ballet School in Toronto, Canada and graduating from Virginia School of the Arts.  She has since created a self-made career in the arts as a visual artist, performer and ballet teacher with over 20 years of experience. Katie has created many illustrations for Highlights for Children magazine, illustrated two children's books and created hundreds of prints and original commissions over her career. Katie's work captures the play and imagination of childhood through watercolor, ink pen and acrylic paintings and illustrations.

            Katie lives in Ontario where she works from her home studio and continues to teach ballet. She and her husband homeschool their four children and come home to Kansas as often as they can.