Defoliación del Abuelo (Defoliating Grandfather)

Here’s Juan Adrade’s caption for this photo. “Partial defolation on one of the grandfather trees. Close to 100 yrs old (Defoliación de las ramas exteriores en uno de los tridentes del abuelo de mi maestro. Este arbol posiblemente se acerca a los 100 años).” All the photos in this post are from a series of photos on Juan’s facebook feed. Facebook is great if you like photos of children, animals or glassy eyed people over eating at restaurants. If you’re lucky and you have the right friends, you might find good photos of quality bonsai. However, it’s somewhat unusual to … Continue reading Defoliación del Abuelo (Defoliating Grandfather)

Serendipitous Birds & Bonsai Pots

Birds and blossoms. All the pots shown here are from this facebook timeline. This morning a sweet, brilliantly plumed little male Goldfinch flew headlong into my kitchen window and bounced back onto the deck where it lay stunned on its back for a minute or so, while I and three house guests gave gentle words of encouragement and kept watch for the cat. Finally, with just a small assist from my hand, it righted itself and flew off. Not fifteen minutes later I opened the door to my office to let in some cool morning air and two medium sized birds … Continue reading Serendipitous Birds & Bonsai Pots

Playing It Cool

This freshly defoliated monster Trident maple was just posted on facebook by Juan Andrade, who happens to be the guilty party (see below). We’ve featured Juan here on Bark several times. My best guess is this won’t be last time either. Two monsters. The only thing the connects these two trees, at least as far as I know, is that they are both remarkably large. And very cool too. Two things jump right out about the Trident maple above: its remarkably massive trunk, the base of which almost fills the entire pot, and its most excellent taper (good movement too … Continue reading Playing It Cool

Relaxed & Alert

Lots of rugged character and great ramification. I can’t read Korean, but I’ll guess it’s a Japanese beech. It has been a while since we’ve featured bonsai from Korea. When I look at these trees, I see Chinese and Japanese influence. Though my guess is the Koreans wouldn’t necessarily see that way. All the trees in this post are from Bonsai Korea. More elegant, yet still a little rough. Looks like another beech. This one has a relaxed look below and an alert look above. Nice mineral encrusted pot too. Is it a Hornbeam? The heavy funky … Continue reading Relaxed & Alert

Old Japanese Whites plus One

This distinctive Goyo-matsu (Japanese white pine) is from the Omiya Bonsai Art Museum. I don’t know if the split trunk was by the hand-of-man or the result of a natural occurrence. Either way, the twin trunk effect is wonderful. At the risk of stating the obvious, you might notice the similar movement and direction of the each trunk’s twists and turns. We’re digging back into our archives once again and we’re always looking for catchy titles, even when it’s a bit of a stretch. All the trees shown here are from two earlier Bark posts. The plus one in the … Continue reading Old Japanese Whites plus One

Creative, Daring, Fascinating & Maybe…

I like the tree’s powerful dynamic movement, but it’s the pot that floors me. It’s creative, daring, fascinating and maybe just a little overcooked. We’ll leave it with both an exclamation point and a question mark. I found both of these trees on facebook. They were posted by Bonsai Hegar Cipariuk from Indonesia. I can’t read the text, but I can see the trees and especially the pots. As mentioned in the caption, I’m not sure what to make of the pot above, though it gets very high marks for being completely unique and over-the-top creative. The pot below however, is … Continue reading Creative, Daring, Fascinating & Maybe…

A Magical Land Where Almost Every House Has a Bonsai

We know this tree is very large, but exactly how large is difficult to tell (the uncropped photo immediately below might help a bit). In addition to its great size, it shows an excellent base and nebari, as well as some gnarly bumps that look a bit like melting wax. I think I can say with confidence that it’s Ficus. All the photos in this post were taken by Robert Steven on a recent trip to Vietnam. The other day someone suggested we feature Vietnamese bonsai. As it turns out, we have done just that several times already, with more … Continue reading A Magical Land Where Almost Every House Has a Bonsai

Bonsai Elegance with Painted Trunks

Stately bonsai elegance. Here’s the original caption for this photo “The customer wanted the trunk brown and the quickest way was to paint it. This is my first time using paint on my sculptures and I’m very happy with the results.” The person who wrote that is Ken To, the creator of the bonsai wire-sculptures that you see here and in several previous Bark posts. You can find even more of Ken’s exquisite little delights on his website, on facebook and on deviantART. Ken To’s marvelous miniature wire bonsai sculptures just keep getting better. And now, because Ken has started … Continue reading Bonsai Elegance with Painted Trunks

Bonsai That Speak for Themselves

Rugged natural beauty refined by the eye and hand of man (something like that anyway). The tree and photo belong to Colin Lewis. You can see more good stuff on his website. All the bonsai in this post belong to Colin Lewis. Colin is a transplanted Brit who now finds himself working and living on the coast of Maine. You can find him there too (at his Ho Yoku School of Bonsai) if you would like study with someone who know their stuff I won’t say much about Colin’s bonsai, rather let them speak for themselves. My best guess is … Continue reading Bonsai That Speak for Themselves

Celebrating Bonsai

I’m feeling a little daring today. Even revolutionary. This is the first time we’ve used cartoon images. Let alone head up a post with one. Both cartoons are promotions for Robert Steven’s big Bonsai Biennale and they work for me. Hopefully for you too. All the images in this post are from Robert’s facebook feed. It has been a while since we’ve featured Robert Steven’s masterful bonsai and his other numerous doings. Doings so numerous that I suspect he seldom sleeps (Bill Valavanis is also suspect, but that’s for another time). We’ll focus mostly on images that feature Robert’s upcoming … Continue reading Celebrating Bonsai