A Second Look

Fluidity and power. If you’re not into the highly styled look, then you’re probably not crazy about this tree. But it might be possible to take a second look with some effort to relax any notion of what a bonsai should look like. When I do this I see an impressive work of art (in this case at least), though admittedly you’d never see a tree in nature that looks quite like this one. It’s was posted on facebook by Minoru Akiyama, one of Japan’s many outstanding bonsai artists. No species is given, but Shimpaku juniper is probably a safe … Continue reading A Second Look

“It’s About Time We in the Bonsai Community Caught Up”

This majestic old pomegranate (Punica granatum) was styled by John Naka. After John died, his wife Alice donated it to the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum. Mr Naka was and is a major influence on Dave De Groot’s view and practice of bonsai (more below on Dave). Yesterday’s post resurrected an old debate that has been running on and off for years here on Bark and elsewhere. We’ve been calling it highly refined bonsai versus naturalistic bonsai. If you check the comments to yesterday’s post and earlier posts on the topic, you’ll get an idea of just how high passions … Continue reading “It’s About Time We in the Bonsai Community Caught Up”

Revisiting An Old & Still Relevant Bonsai Debate

Hinoki cypress by Dan Robinson. From Gnarly Branches, Ancient Trees. An excellent example of a naturalistic bonsai. I think it’s time to revisit a discussion that seems to provoke plenty of interest each time we bring it up (there were 35 comments to this post back in 2011 and numerous comments to previous posts on topic). It’s also timely given that Gnarly Branches, Ancient Trees is now back in print and Dan Robinson’s bonsai play a big part in the discussion. A note about Gnarly Branches, Ancient Trees that I neglected to mention last post: By agreement with the publisher, … Continue reading Revisiting An Old & Still Relevant Bonsai Debate

Getting Out of the Way

This Ponderosa pine was no doubt collected somewhere in western North America. Europeans are lucky in that regard; it’s relatively easy for them to import plants from around the world. Here in the U.S. restrictions are much more onerous. The tree belongs to (or belonged to?) Walter Pall. The photo is from The Art of Bonsai Project, as are all the photos in this post. All of the bonsai in this post are by Walter Pall in collaboration with Mother Nature. Walter is a proponent of the ‘getting out of the way’ school of bonsai. Not that we want to … Continue reading Getting Out of the Way

Pushing the Bonsai Boundaries

Can you imagine the time needed to develop and maintain the numerous foliage clouds? Does this level of refinement exist outside of Japan? Needle juniper (J. rigida) by Shinji Suzuki. From our Masters’ Series Juniper book. Picking up where we left off Our last post provoked more discussion than any post so far. Roughly drawn, the topic is naturalistic bonsai versus highly stylized and highly refined bonsai. I thought it might be good to continue with examples that exist at the extremes, at least in my view. This Big cone Douglas fir by Dan Robinson jumped out at me because … Continue reading Pushing the Bonsai Boundaries