Original mixed-media painting
Light of a Clear Blue Morning
Dolly Parton as a mermaid — portrait, sea, and glittered light — by Stephanie Shuptrine, daughter of Hubert Shuptrine.
Request details Materials & provenance
The painting
A luminous portrait of Dolly rising from a mermaid tail and a wing-like shawl of teal and bronze. The face is painted with the quiet realism of the Shuptrine line. The sea around her is built, not just brushed — resin, glitter, scales, starfish, and sand.
What it is made of
Answers below come from the artist when she submits her form. Until then, labels stay marked as awaiting confirmation so nothing is invented for a listing.
- Face and hair
- Awaiting Stephanie — egg tempera, watercolor, or both
- Shawl
- Awaiting Stephanie
- Resin and glitter
- Awaiting Stephanie
- White sandy ground
- Awaiting Stephanie
- Starfish and shells
- Awaiting Stephanie — real or cast
- Finished
- Month and year to confirm
- Signature
- Front or back to confirm
- Exhibition / posting history
- Awaiting Stephanie
- Prior interest
- Awaiting Stephanie
- Title
- Proposed: Light of a Clear Blue Morning — awaiting her yes
Why Dolly as a mermaid
Stephanie’s own words will sit here after she sends the form.
The artist
Stephanie Shuptrine learned watercolor, drybrush, and occasional egg tempera from her father, Hubert Shuptrine (1936–2006), the painter of Jericho: The South Beheld with James Dickey and Home to Jericho with Phyllis Shuptrine. Before he died he trained her in the same search for luminosity and likeness. She has painted commissioned portraits, pets, Cherokee subjects including Going Back Chiltosky, and children from BelikeBrit in Haiti.
Her short bio, in her own words, will replace this note.
Lineage in the listing: awaiting her permission to say “daughter of Hubert Shuptrine.”
Family note
A word from Phyllis Wright Shuptrine will appear here after she completes her form.
The title
Dolly wrote “Light of a Clear Blue Morning” as her song of deliverance — the long night over, a brand new day. The painting holds that same lift: a face in clear light, water around her, morning instead of wreckage. The title is proposed for this work and waits on Stephanie’s blessing.
Selected works and history
Stephanie’s list of sold paintings and their stories will be added from her form. Nothing is published here from guesswork.