Powerful Pines & Bonsai Wire

This powerful pine with its aged, heavily plated bark (reminiscent of our North American Ponderosa pines, especially the reddish section at the base of the trunk) is one of many spectacular trees displayed at the recent 2012 BCI convention in China. This and all the photos in this post are courtesy of Robert Steven. Summer sun beckons, so we’ll take the easy way out once again. This post, with some text added today (in italics) originally appeared in April, 2013. Pines now, the rest later. Robert Steven just sent us a whole host of great photos from the recent 2012 … Continue reading Powerful Pines & Bonsai Wire

Some Question Marks

Judging by the background, this photo is from the 2013 BCI convention in China. Robert Steven sent us a bunch of great photos from this convention which we featured a while back (here, here and here). Maybe this is one that we missed. Anyway, I like the voluptuous, free-wheeling, unmanicured look. This photos and the others shown here are from Bonsai Phong. Lately we’ve been inundated with facebook friend requests from Vietnam. By the hundreds. This is in keeping with this statement by Robert Steven (from an earlier Bark post): “The interest in bonsai in Vietnam is amazing and unbelievable. … Continue reading Some Question Marks

Dragon 3

Highly distinctive, exceptionally powerful and almost grotesque. When I first glanced at this tree, there was just a massive trunk with great taper and one of the largest sabamiki (the hollow in the trunk) ever. Then the face appeared (purely a mental projection by the way). I think the solution to this dilemma is to relax the gaze and take in a the whole tree and the space around it. Or simply don’t bother projecting. The photos of the trees that Robert Steven sent from the recent BCI convention in China are so good that they’re worth a third post … Continue reading Dragon 3

Dragon Ascending

What appear to be roots growing out of a long hollow on the side of trunk, creates a very unusual and fascinating effect. The rest of the tree isn’t half bad either and the flute player adds a playful human quality and contributes to a sense of vastness. The photo, which is courtesy of Robert Steven is from the recent BCI convention in China This post, like the previous post titled BCI: Bonsai Strong, shows more of Robert Steven‘s photos from the recent BCI convention in China. As you may know, in addition to being a great bonsai artist, Robert … Continue reading Dragon Ascending

BCI: Bonsai Strong

Bonsai strong. One of many spectacular trees displayed at the recent BCI convention in China. This and all the photos in this post are courtesy of Robert Steven. Pines now, the rest later. Robert Steven just sent us a whole host of great photos from the recent BCI convention in China. We’ll start with some powerful pines here, and then show you some of the other trees in a few days. This has to be one of the most impressive pine forests anywhere. Actually, you can scratch the pine part and we’ll just leave it at one of the … Continue reading BCI: Bonsai Strong