This painting was submitted by John Burrows of Burrows Art. The paintings on John’s site are oils, so I assume this is also an oil painting. Feel free I’ve decided to critique each entry before I decide on a winner. Feel free to disagree (or agree) with my comments. Just remember that it is not [...]
You can view this forest and other bonsai paintings by Kim Straus at Artist/Rising. Take your time, but hurry up! Paintings, drawings, digital art, bonsai tattoos; the choice is yours. But don’t wait (and miss your chance for widespread fame and even better, a fifty dollar gift certificate to Stone Lantern), there are only three [...]
I wonder what it tastes like… I lifted this mind stopping image from Michelle Dougherty’s Bunjin Journal. For some of us, the image alone speaks volumes (a picture is worth a whole bunch of words). For others, it opens the door to a discussion that, before it plays out, may generate more words than anyone [...]
One year later Part one showed how to encourage tertiary and quantiary branching. This post shows how to establish of the next layer of branching (quintary?). The illustrations are from our Juniper book. Quantiary? In the bonsai world, it’s not unusual to hear or see primary, secondary and tertiary when it comes to branching. I’m [...]
This Limber pine (Pinus flexilis) is going to stay put right where it is. Photo by Andy Smith, from the home page on Andy’s Golden Arrow Bonsai. Andy Smith Andy Smith is a bonsai artist and professional woodsman who specializes in collecting trees from nature. Though I’ve only met Andy once, and have never been [...]
As you can see, this tree by Zhuang Weijun is the Grand Winner of the World Bonsai Friendship Federation‘s 2009 Bonsai Photo Contest. I was very taken with this tree as well as the runner ups, and several of these entrants. As far as ascertaining the types of trees and other pertinent information (with the [...]
Needle juniper pinching These drawings describe a ramification (branching) process for a Needle juniper. The techniques may be applied to other junipers and in some cases, to other types of trees. The drawings are from our Juniper book. In the top drawing there are only secondary branches. These are allowed to grow and strengthen (second [...]
From left to right: unidentified grass, Japanese black pine (Pinus thunbergii), flowering ‘Nippon Bells’ (Shortia uniflora) companion plant, suiseki (viewing stone), another unidentified companion, and a very stately Needle juniper (Juniperus ridgida). By Masao Komatsu. Group displays Each group display in this post is by a single artist. Each display shows mastery in two art [...]
This Weeping eastern white pine (Pinus Strobus ‘Pendula’) is from Shin-Boku Nursery in Wentworth NH. It’s pretty impressive as is, but if you wanted to turn it into a very large bonsai, you might want to cut off (or air-layer) everything above the large first branch on the left (the branch that’s about even with [...]
This Japanese yew (Taxus cuspidata) is from Classic Bonsai of Japan (Nippon Bonsai Association: Kodansha America, Inc.). The Japanese name for yew is Ichii. It’s was said to be two hundred years old when this photo was taken. As you can see at a glance, it’s a very powerful old twin trunk tree with great [...]
