Basking Frog
Frog was carved during a week of intense sunshine and energy sapping heat. I did muse that frogs love to bask in the sunshine, it speeds up their metabolism, digestion and growth and gives them greater energy levels. All in balance though, as they can quickly de-hydrate, moisture evaporating through their highly permeable skins.
The evolution of frogs is fascinating - some changing colour to cope with heat, others secreting an oily ‘sunscreen’ to block harmful rays, which they rub over themselves. The first known frog lived some 250 million years ago during the Triassic period. It was very much like our present-day frogs - walking on land, but also at home in the water and would have gone there to breed. It had a wide scull, short legs, a short tail and no rib-cage.
In shape my Frog sculpture is simple, primitive even, and shares features found in the early amphibian. Moreover, it is carved in a limestone which itself is some 250 million years old.
There is a suggestion too, concluded from the fossils found of these first frogs, that they lived in equatorial regions and successfully survived the mass extinctions and arid climates of the period. I take it as further justification for leaving Frog to bask a bit longer and a feeling that the sculpture will be happy placed in a sunny spot in the garden.
Frog sculpture - carved in Tadcaster Limestone - 7 1/2” x 4” x 3 1/2” - exhibited at NortonWay Gallery