Flint Hills Color: Perfect for Painters

Here is another collection of color samples: taken from the north tip of the flinthills/konza prairie area.
Whites take on a blue tint; golds become more golden; silver, copper and rose tones glisten throughout.

fine art in the flint hills

Walking the Konza mtodd

fine art in the flint hills

Night Skies  mtodd

fine art in the flint hills

Barnlight mary todd

 fine art in the flint hills

Barnlight dust mary todd

fine art in the flint hills

Golden cornfields at sunset mtodd

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Listen to the high winds----




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Corn in Kansas

Yes, the wheat field is most beautiful,
and nothing compares to the wild Kansa winds creating a truly undulating sea out of a wheat field...
video click HERE

Yet
the vast cornfield, with its amazing height, the wonderful rows you can walk as a meditation, all the creatures that hide and play in the deep shadows... that rustling sound on summer nights--

Fine Art in the Flint Hills Konza Prairie Girl

Summer Heat Cooks Corn mary todd

Fine Art in the Flint Hills Konza Prairie Girl

Farmland Cornline mary todd

Fine Art in the Flint Hills Konza Prairie Girl

Kansas Corn in Heat mary todd

Fine Art in the Flint Hills Konza Prairie Girl

Windmill in Kansas Corn mary todd

Fine Art in the Flint Hills Konza Prairie Girl

  Corn as Hot Chili Peppers mary todd

 Fine Art in the Flint Hills Konza Prairie Girl

Hawaiian Corn mtodd

Fine Art in the Flint Hills Konza Prairie Girl

Golden Fall Corn at Sundown mary todd

Fine Art in the Flint Hills Konza Prairie Girl

Smoky Sundown on the Farm mary todd

Fine Art in the Flint Hills Konza Prairie Girl

Dancing Corn Woman mary todd

click on pictures to view larger

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Fine Art in the Flint Hills Konza Prairie Girl

Cornfield Delivery  mary todd

Spring Color Palette in the Flint Hills of Kansas

When it is

as it is (now)

fine art in the flint hills

Cold Crow mary todd

it can be hard to believe that the surge of life and color and energy will return.
(What a teaching/learning that must have been for young, early peoples...)

One of the interesting color combinations in the spring is one I never considered until photographing the Flint Hills and the Konza Prairie:

Reds and Greens together. The end of winter here, and the amazing array of animal and plant life, have changed red and green from a rich holiday pairing to a lighter sign of spring...



The Vultures are here! The vultures are here!

fine art in the flint hills

Vultures in Kansas mary todd

fine art in the flint hills

fine art in the flint hills

 Spring Vultures in Kansas mary todd

fine art in the flint hills

 Two Vultures Saying Grace mary todd

fine art in the flint hills

Rabbit Ears en rosetta mtodd

fine art in the flint hills

Mama Woodchuck mary todd

fine art in the flint hills

  Pastel Vulture mary todd

fine art in the flint hills

 Magic white rabbit is not white...

fine art in the flint hills

Rosebreasted Grosbeak

fine art in the flint hills

Woodchucks love to eat apples!

fine art in the flint hills

fine art in the flint hills

fine art in the flint hills

The beautiful rose-breasted grosbeak

fine art in the flint hills

I do love the vultures...

Spring Vulture in the Zeandale Trees

fine art in the flint hills

 Can i help you? mary todd

fine art in the flint hills

Vulture over Kansas Farmhouse mtodd

fine art in the flint hills

fine art in the flint hills

Woodchuck by Mary Todd

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Do Skies Reflect the Ocean?

The Tallgrass Prairie of Kansas was once the bottom of an ocean.

Oh Yes...

A Nice Sky by M.K.Todd

Shall i repeat that?

Hie thee to the Discovery Center in Manhattan, KS to learn more about these wonderful Flint Hills and the Tallgrass Prairie.

A mural in the greeting hall:

 These are the gardens of the Desert, these 

The unshorn fields, boundless and beautiful,

For which the speech of England has no name- 

The Prairies. I behold them for the first, 

And my heart swells, while the dilated sight 

Takes in the encircling vastness.

Lo! they stretch, 

In airy undulations, far away, 

As if the ocean, in his gentlest swell, 

Stood still, with an his rounded billows fixed, 

And motionless forever.- Motionless?- 

No- they are all unchained again. The clouds 

Sweep over with their shadows, and, beneath, 

The surface rolls and fluctuates to the eye; 

Dark hollows seem to glide along and chase 

The sunny ridges. Breezes of the South!

...

from

THE PRAIRIES by William Cullen Bryant

the entire poem is a treasure...

...

...The low of herds

Blends with the rustling of the heavy grain

Over the dark-brown furrows. All at once

A fresher wind sweeps by, and breaks my dream,

And I am in the wilderness alone.

1832

I only bring it up, 

since our skies here on the Konza Prairie where I live

 are endless, deep, ever-changing, and at times filled with innumerable creatures caught in huge murmurings like a school of Bluejacks...

but--

these creatures cut through the Kansas skies-- thousands, tens of thousands, in perfect peace, honking with delight at the discovery of a lately harvested corn field, the stray kernels like gold nuggets fueling their migration south...

at two minutes through the end a great murmuring takes place...

Some Kansas Skies:

Photographs by Mary Todd

Geese in the Prairie Sky mktodd

Sunflowers as Stormbringer mktodd

Flint Hills Farm mktodd

little house mktodd

Ice Morning mktodd

Konza Skies mktodd

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Here is a tiny snip of a wonderful three-dimensional film experience you can have at the Flint Hills Discovery Center.
The actual movie, a 3-D experience you will want to see again and again, is alone worth the price of admission--although, i recommend joining for a year so you can drop in anytime. I like to pop in and just see the movie, which is shown throughout the day.

the ancient secrets... acting over a very long time... the emotions that come over you... this land was covered by a vast inland sea...

The Flint Hills Discovery Center, click HERE

Playing on the Konza Prairie...

with a good Canon...

Konza Prairie Girl Flint Hills Fine Art
Konza Quarter Moon mktodd

Konza Prairie Girl Flint Hills Fine Art
The Konza Cat mktodd

Konza Prairie Girl Flint Hills Fine Art
Pink Painted Sky in Morning  mktodd

Konza Prairie Girl Flint Hills Fine Art
Pansies on the Farm  mktodd  more Pansies HERE 

click on pic to view large

Konza Prairie Girl Flint Hills Fine Art
Coming Light mktodd

Konza Prairie Girl Flint Hills Fine Art
Coffee and a trip into town m.k.todd

Konza Prairie Girl Flint Hills Fine Art
greyscale Mozambique in the Field mary todd