A Steady Stream… 4/14/13

Premna serratifolia by Robert Steven. Aside from the immediate impact of the old wood with all the trunks popping up everywhere, there’s the counter-balance provided by the sturdy little trunk on the far left and the way the two tiny trunks at the base provide subtle accents. And then there’s that teetering trunk on that tiny tip that sticks out on the far right at the very end of the planting (six years of government-funded college down the drain on two mangled sentences).

The beat goes on. If you take the time to go back through our 700-plus previous posts, you’ll find that Robert Steven appears more than any other bonsai artist. This is not an accident. Not only does Robert provide us with a steady stream of highly instructive critiques (send me a photo <wayne@stonelantern.com> and he’ll do one for you), but even without those we’d still feature Robert as we consider him to be one of the most energetic and innovative bonsai artists in the world. Beyond that, Robert is a business partner of sorts; we are the North American distributors of his classic bonsai books and of his Bonsai Aesthetics tools and wire.

Plantings where old wood becomes a stand-in for rocky outcroppings and cliffs are one of Robert Steven’s specialties. I don’t know who originally pioneered this type of raft planting, but I do know that Robert has elevated the art.

 

I like the relaxed way this raft is gently laid out on a mossy knoll. Reminds me of something I’ve stumbled upon hiking in the mountains somewhere. It’s from one of Robert’s recent facebook posts.

 

This highly unusual raft style planting, with its gnarled twisty protuberance and corresponding pot, is still fresh and needs some time to fill in. It’s from the same facebook posting as the image immediately above.