A Boon to Bonsai 10/10/12

From chuhin to shohin. I have a soft spot for stubby little trees. Especially ones with reams of character like this European olive that was originally a stump dug from Boon Manakitivipart’s garden.

Bonsai Boon
Boon Manakitivipart is without doubt one of North America’s most influential bonsai artists and teachers. Several of his students have become important artists and teachers in their own right, and countless trees of Boon’s and his students’ have appeared on this blog, in magazines and books and elsewhere on the web.

All of the photos in this posts (except the very last one) are from a recent workshop that Boon hosted. It’s my impression that all of these trees were worked on by Boon’s students.

 

Another short, sweet and muscular little tree. This one is a Coast live oak (Quercus agrifolia).

 

At the risk of being a little too esoteric (or just getting carried away), this Satsuki azalea’s trunk reminds me of some of Antoni Gaudi’s sculptural architecture that graces the great city of Barcelona.

 

Is this a Shimpaku grafted onto a California juniper? Whatever it is, there’s an abundance of power and movement and a counter-balancing feeling of graceful simplicity that I like a lot (it’s a good thing most of you just look at the pictures). There’s another photo (also from Boon’s workshop) of Janet Roth working on this tree that says, Janet is working on her show tree for Jan 2014 show. Yes 2014. ‘Born in the USA’

Yes, this is the same Sierra juniper that appeared on the cover of Bonsai Today issue 108 (our famous last issue). The first branch has been shortened, and there’s more foliage peeking out to the left of the trunk, but otherwise, it hasn’t changed very much.

 

The photo that was used for the cover of Bonsai Today issue 108.