I think this magnificent convoluted beast belongs to Yusuf Sirait; at least it appears on his facebook page. It’s a Pemphis acidula (Santigi).
Yet another mid-summer vacation resurrection (from January 2012). The original was a little wordy so I’ve chopped it down just a bit.
Bonsai paradise
I wonder just how common naturally contorted wild bonsai stock are on the islands of Indonesia. Based on what you see online and elsewhere, it’s easy to get the impression that they are quite abundant and easily accessible, though, I doubt that’s really the case. In fact, photos from Robert Steven’s Mission of Transformation show Robert and friends going to a considerable amount of trouble and even risk to life and limb to collect wild trees (here’s a relevant post from 2009). Still, Indonesian bonsai artists seem to come up with a near endless supply of high quality collected bonsai, and the ones shown here are no exception.
The wild contortions on this one are a bit more expansive, but nature’s ravages combined with skilled human hands make for the same delightful results. This one belongs to Budi Sulistyo (see our last post). The photo is from ofbonsai.org.
I don’t think we can go any further without showing one of Robert Steven’s masterpieces. Robert is a bright star in the Indonesian bonsai universe and this gnarly old tree is a good example of what his skillful hands and eyes can do with powerful collected material. The photo is from the gallery on Robert’s blog. BTW: Robert is a frequent contributor to this blog and author of two of our favorite bonsai books (below).
You can enjoy a 20% to 25% discount off our already discounted prices during our big Summer Book Sale. Including this set of two favorite bonsai books by Robert Steven.