Blue Frog artist, Beth Knotts, is shown at left sketching Shiprock Monument in Shiprock, New Mexico. Beth's daughter and Blue Frog Founder, Debbi Skinner took Beth to visit Shiprock on a day trip from her home in the Farmington, NM area.
"I really liked the interesting shapes and forms of the plant life around the monument. I loved the way the road wound its way up to the monument. There was great contrast between the dark shadows and sunlit areas leading up to the monument, and between the jagged rocks and the curved globular forms of the plant life.
I was pleased with the results of the outing. From the on-site pencil sketch, I was able to do several watercolor studies later, when I returned to Debbi's house."
About Shiprock
The Shiprock land form, located in Northwestern New Mexico,
is the remnant of an explosive volcanic
eruption that occurred around 30 million years ago.
The main part of the landform is 600 meters high, and 500
meters in diameter. Shiprock, known as Tse Bitai,
or "the winged rock" in Navajo, is a volcanic neck, or the
central feeder pipe of larger volcanic landform
which has since eroded away. The neck is composed of
fractured volcanic rock, or breccia, crosscut by
many thin veins of lava. Ship Rock is composed of an unusual,
highly potassic magma
composition called a "minette", thought to form by
very small degrees of melting of the
earth's mantle. Shiprock was probably
750 to 1,000 meters below the land surface at the time it was formed,
and has since gained its prominent form due to erosion of surrounding rocks.
(taken from United States Geological Society (USGS) website)."
More Adventures Coming Soon...
Check in again soon, as Debbi and Beth are planning to visit Choke Cherry Canyon in Farmington, and the Painted Desert and Sedona in Arizona next week!
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