Beating a Dead(wood) Horse

Flowing graceful lines with a minimum amount of foliage and a copious amount of masterfully carved deadwood. And though some people may take issue with this abstract, highly stylized type bonsai, to me this is sheer beauty. A delight to behold. One misconception about highly stylized bonsai with extensive carved deadwood is that they violate some basic principle of bonsai and nature. The famous John Naka line “The object is not to make the tree look like a bonsai, but to make the bonsai look like a tree” is sometimes used to reinforce this view. I think Mr Naka’s quote … Continue reading Beating a Dead(wood) Horse

Bonsai Tonight Visits Picasso

Dan Robinson, famous bonsai innovator and owner of Elandan Gardens, gives 1,500 as the year of origin for this wild Ponderosa pine. Photo by Jonas Dupuich of Bonsai Tonight. The Picasso of Bonsai According to Will Hiltz, the author and publisher of Gnarly Branches, Ancient Trees, it was Frank Okimura who first referred to Dan Robinson as the Picasso of Bonsai. I think these photos and the photos in Gnarly Branches make a pretty good case for that name. Another title that fits is Dan is Bonsai Pioneer (also from Gnarly Branches, Ancient Trees). The natural in naturalistic The notion … Continue reading Bonsai Tonight Visits Picasso

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