Four Beautiful Bonsai & An Exercise In Futility and Frustration 3/31/14

I think this tree deserves some attention. Especially the extraordinary powerful trunk that shows massive shari (trunk deadwood) with only a hint of a living vein (peeking out lower left and upper left). Then there’s the foliage which is somewhat groomed but still free-flowing; giving the tree an informal feel. It might also be worth mentioning that it’s slanting style. You don’t see nearly as many quality slant style bonsai as you do upright bonsai. The photo is from Salvador De Los Reyes facebook photos, as are the other three photos in this post. Here’s the caption that appears on facebook. “Juniperus (no species given) by Salvador De Los Reyes. Approximately 80 years of age. Added by Gustavo Celayes.

This isn’t the first time we’ve featured the bonsai of Salvador de los Reyes (here’s a Before & After from August 2012). Actually that may be a bit misleading because none of the bonsai shown here belong to Salvador, though all four appear among his facebook photos. He worked on the tree above but it doesn’t belong to him (here’s the story in Spanish) and the trees below also belong to other people, though Salador worked one at least one of them.

There’s a story embedded in this post about just how confusing facebook photos can be, especially if you are interested in attribution. Photos get posted and reposted, sometimes dozens of times and trying to trace them back to the artist most often proves to be an exercise in futility and frustration.

 

Beautiful tree, beautiful pot, beautiful companion, beautiful arrangement and excellent photo. I believe Salvador de los Reyes might have taken the photo, but I’m too busy -aka impatient- to suffer the aggravation of researching right now (especially in Spanish), so if anyone knows the whole story…. I do know (or believe I know) that the tree belongs to Jose Manuel Frontan Salas.

 

Have you ever seen a Carob bonsai? I think I have, but maybe just once before and maybe it was this very tree (memory has it’s limits). Here’s the caption from facebook: Carob Tree (Ceratonia Silicua) by Salvador de Los Reyes from Spain. Owner, Manolo Vargas. Height: 90 cm. Added by Gustavo Celayes

 

This somewhat overly groomed tree with its magnificent see-through trunk is also from Salvador de los Reyes facebook photos. Is it an olive? The caption says: Excelente obra maestra propiedad de German Gomez Soler (Excelllent masterpiece owned by German Gomez Soler). BTW: German is his name, not his nationality. It’s not clear to me if Salvador ever worked on this tree or photographed it, or just liked it and included it in his facebook photos.