Don Balke (B. 1933) "Purple Finch and Lilac" W/C

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American & European Fine Art & Antiques

By Helmuth Stone Gallery

Aug 14, 2022

Set Reminder 2022-08-14 13:00:00 2022-08-14 13:00:00 America/New_York Bidsquare Bidsquare : American & European Fine Art & Antiques https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/helmuth-stone-gallery/american-european-fine-art-antiques-9889
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• Lot Description
  Don Balke (North Carolina, B. 1933) "Purple Finch and Lilac" Signed lower left. Original Watercolor on Illustration Board.
  
  Provenance: Collection of James A. Helzer (1946-2008), Founder of Unicover Corporation.
  
  This painting was originally published on the Fleetwood commemorative cover for Balke's Birds and Flowers of the 50 States, cancelled June 21, 1985.
  
  Not purple at all, the male Purple Finch looks like a large-billed sparrow with a glowing red head. The brownish female is boldly streaked and wears white facial stripes. These small, conical-billed birds are usually most abundant at New England feeding stations in spring, when the red maples are in bloom. Thoreau, who scattered crumbs for these birds at Walden Pond, loved to hear the Purple Finch's rich strains of music and their sharp call note. 'The hearing of this note," he wrote, "implies great improvement in the acoustics of the air." A hardy bird, the Purple Finch has been observed bathing in icy streams in below-freezing temperatures, and singing after a blizzard. If sentiment alone determined the most popular flowering shrub, it might well be the Lilac. There is hardly a person whose memory is not stirred by it, and its scent is one of the most familiar of all perfumes associated with flowers. Lilac flowers grow in panicles, the botanical name for their pyramid-shaped clusters. The panicles grow at the end of the small branches of a shrub or small tree which may reach twenty feet in height. In the spring, Lilac bushes are laden with fragrant clusters of flowers which vary in size. Lilacs have also become runaways and grow along roads and on uncared-for land. They prefer a rich soil but are strong enough to survive almost anywhere.
  
  Image Size: 11 x 12.5 in.
  Overall Size: 19.25 x 21 in.
  Unframed.
  (B09608)

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