Don Balke (North Carolina, B. 1933) “Mountain Top” Signed lower right. Original Watercolor painting on Illustration Board.
Provenance: Collection of James A. Helzer (1946-2008), Founder of Unicover Corporation.
This painting is the original painting which was published on the Fleetwood First Day of Issue Postal Card for the U.S. 15c America the Beautiful, The Mountains, issue of May 5, 1989.
Thrusting aloft with tilted granite ridges and soaring peaks, America’s magnificent mountains offer grand and sweeping vistas. Their bubbling streams delight us, their gleaming minerals and dark forests help support us, the dazzling snows of their summits overawe with brooding silence. Mount Hood, the most frequently climbed snowcapped mountain in the hemisphere, draws thousands of hikers every year to its 11,235-foot peak — highest point in Oregon. The tumbled Sierras, a prime wilderness recreation area, occupies a fifth of California and encompasses three national parks, eight national forests, and fifteen state parks. Almost a thousand miles east, in Colorado, the former mining town of Aspen now reigns as the Rockies’ premier year-round resort, offering four popular ski areas and a cultural feast of concerts, plays, and seminars. Almost two thousand miles east of Aspen, along the Atlantic Seaboard, the Appalachians offer a more rounded grace, with soft valleys and dappled autumn forests. Truly, mountains are an important part of the American experience. They helped define the paths of early exploration, later industry and modern tourism. And in their heights, they express the vastness of the American spirit.
Image Size: 14.75 x 13 in.