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Appalachian Primavera (Dolly and Spring Ephemerals)
Appalachian Primavera (Dolly and Spring Ephemerals)
Watercolor, gouache and pen on paper
2019

Appalachian Primavera celebrates the patron saint of East Tennessee, the local deity that is Dolly Parton. In the manner of Bottecelli’s “Primavera’, this watercolor and gouache drawing depicts Dolly arising from a lush carpet of spring ephemeral plants, native to the forests of the Great Smoky Mountain, and crowned with a riot of butterflies, her emblem.. A fully-formed musical, entrepreneurial and philanthropic cabbage patch, Dolly is someone who famously admitted ‘It costs a lot of money to look this cheap’, but who is ironically as natural and essential to the landscape as woodland plants she is intertwined, the species of which are enumerated below:

1. Mayapple, Podophyllum peltatum

2. Wild Blue Phlox, Phlox divaricata

3. Bloodroot, Sanguinaria canadensis

4. Trillium (Toadshade), Trillium sessile

5. Solomon’s Seal, Polygonatum multiflorum

6. Lady’s Slipper, Cypripedium reginae

Appalachian Primavera (Dolly and Spring Ephemerals) quantity