Strong, Wild and Full of Character 4/21/14

There’s a lot to like here. First, there’s some of that same funky (in the good sense) quality that you see in the feature tree in the previous post. Both are strong, wild and full of character. In this case so strong and clearly defined that the background noise doesn’t distract all that much. All the photos in this post are from Bonsai Quinn.

Our last post featured a couple Penjing plantings so we’ll stay on topic. All the photos shown here are from a newly discovered blog (for me at least) called Bonsai Quinn. The man behind the blog is Matt Quinn. He lives in Montreal, which makes him a neighbor of sorts.

Matt took these and numerous other photos at the recent (?) Guangzhou Exposition in China. I passed over some great trees because of background noise* and cropped most of the ones shown here to eliminate as much distraction as possible.

When I at look at these trees, a couple questions (no answers) come to mind: Is Penjing bonsai? Why aren’t there any good Penjing plantings by Western artists (or am I missing something?)?

 

I like this tree, though, like the tree above, I picked it in part because of how clearly it stands out from the background. It is, without a doubt Penjing style, though a lot about it is much closer to Japanese bonsai than many, if not most, Penjing.

 

Is this tree yawning? No matter what the gaping hole brings to mind, the trunk clearly has that wild, sculptural Penjing look. So much so that you might miss the excellent ramification and the high degree of artistry and technical accomplishment by some great bonsai artist (Ng Shing Fat – see comments below).

 

Raft style penjing in a beautiful arched pot. Both chaos and order come to mind with the wild roots and unruly trunks tamed by the balance of the single flowing crown.

 

Matt mentions a famous windswept tree. Is this it?

 

An old man enjoying the show. Is that a flute? What’s that rope hanging down and that thing that looks like a ‘towel rack’ attached to the stump?

* Background noise; not to be confused with the lovely sound of background singers. A little off topic, but Twenty Feet From Stardom which I just watched for the second time is absolutely delicious.