Bonsai Art & Ink Painting – A Perfect Intersection

Something new under the sun! Sumi artist Sonia Stella’s caption reads… “Bonsai by Sandro Segneri and modern ink by me” I’m always a little stoked when we discover a new bonsai artist (quoted from our July 14th post). Now we can double down on that with today’s discovery of Sonia Stella’s Bonsai Art & Ink Painting – Sakura Studio. Or maybe triple down, with the added excitement of discovering a perfect intersection of two arts performed at such a high level. MID SUMMER SPECIAL ENDS TONIGHT 25% TO 75% OFF LIST PRICE ON HUNDREDS OF BONSAI ITEMS SPECIAL ENDS TONIGHT, MONDAY AT 11:59PM EDT – … Continue reading Bonsai Art & Ink Painting – A Perfect Intersection

Bonsai at the Intersection of Environmental Art, Durational Art, Performance, Architecture, and Design

There’s more than the tree to bonsai. This photo with the brilliantly conceived pot and stand – and the way they both emphasize and elevate (literally) the tree – perfectly illustrates this point. It’s from a special event flyer posted by Pacific Bonsai Museum titled LAB, Living Art of Bonsai. The date is August 4th. The rest of the details are here This event looks and sounds so compelling that if it weren’t for previous unbreakable commitments, I’d be making my reservations right now. But perhaps you can be lucky! Here’s part of the copy from the Pacific Bonsai Museum about the upcoming LAB… “In … Continue reading Bonsai at the Intersection of Environmental Art, Durational Art, Performance, Architecture, and Design

Revisiting the Great Bonsai Debate

A naturalistic Norway spruce (Picea abies) by Walter Pall (from Bonsai Today issue 106) A blast from the past. This post originally appeared here in July, 2009, our 6th month Barking (this means we’ve been doing this for almost ten years). I don’t know if the topic is still relevant to any of you, but there was a time when it created a bit of a buzz and I think many of us can learn something by reading what Walter Pall has to say about the topic (below). As always with reruns, I’ve made a few changes. In the expanding galaxy of … Continue reading Revisiting the Great Bonsai Debate

Challenges All Their Own – Mixed Bonsai Forests

This mixed forest/landscape is from Spain. The Museo del Bonsai Marbella to be exact (from Bonsais del Sur). It’s too bad the pot is chopped off and the whole photo is cramped, but that’s the way we found it. Still, from what we can see, it look s like a very ambitious project with a numerous type trees and other features to integrate. No mean feat to pull off Today we’ll stay on our forest and other multiple trunk theme of late, only this time it’s mixed bonsai forests from mixed sources. Mixed forests present challenges all there own and are not as common as … Continue reading Challenges All Their Own – Mixed Bonsai Forests

Bonsai Serpent & Two Buttonwoods

The serpent is hiding in plain sight. This magnificent tree belongs to Enrique Castaño, who has this to say about it: “This (Terminalia ucarillo) got the name Kukulcan from the Mayan mythology, Kukulcan was one of the serpents with feathers, kind of like a dragon.” The more I look at this tree, the more I notice – in addition to its sheer power – how well it flows from the well chosen pot and the nicely tapered trunk to the relaxed (there’s that word again – see yesterday) well balanced foliage with all the elements tying together so nicely. Might … Continue reading Bonsai Serpent & Two Buttonwoods

Magnificent Monster

In addition to its brilliant color, this powerful Trident maple has almost everything you’d want in a bonsai, including a massive trunk, fluid natural looking nebari, good lines, a well-matched pot and healthy green moss. The artist is German Gomez. Continuing with our Maple theme… Leaving for vacation in two days and still have a million things to do, so to save some time we’ll go back in time. The photos shown here first appeared on Bark way back in 2010. OKATSUNE TOOL SPECIAL ENDS TOMORROW NIGHT 25% OFF LIST PRICES ON ALL OF OUR OKATSUNE JAPANESE BONSAI & GARDEN TOOLS Special … Continue reading Magnificent Monster

Before & After Bonsai – Rediscovering a Juniper’s Natural Beauty

Here’s Tyler Sherrod’s caption for a job well done…. “Just wired up this juniper for Joe Noga. He has owned this tree for about 30 years. It was grafted with kishu foilage by Mr. Mas Ishii of California. Another cool piece of history of bonsai in America.” Monday morning and we’re already behind, so we’ll let the photos do the talking…. except to say that Tyler Sherrod is one of several Americans (and other Westerners) who has gone through the rigors of a Bonsai apprenticeship in Japan and has brought back his impressive knowledge and skills. Here’s you link to Tyler on fb. 30% off Bonsai … Continue reading Before & After Bonsai – Rediscovering a Juniper’s Natural Beauty

The Best of DC – Our National Bonsai Treasure

This Sargent juniper (Aka Shimpaku) resides at the U.S. National Bonsai and Penjing Museum. It was donated by Doug Paul, owner of the Kennett Collection. This photo and the others shown here, were taken and generously offered by Robert Vitale. The plant varieties and names of the donors are courtesy ofJanice Vitale and Michael James It’s time to sing the praises of our National Bonsai and Penjing Museum, one of our true national treasures and a great place to visit next time you’re in or around DC. And just in case you’re not familiar with our bonsai collection (it belongs to all of us), maybe … Continue reading The Best of DC – Our National Bonsai Treasure

Floating Mountains with Trees

Floating mountains with trees. I originally thought the trees with their tiny leaves might be boxwoods, but upon closer inspection, I think they are probably Serissas. This photo is a closeup from the photo just below. This unusual and creative arrangement was posted by Aus Bonsai on facebook. It would be nice to know who the artist is, but Aus makes no mention of the artist or even provide a link to their source. If this were the first time, we wouldn’t mention it, but Aus Bonsai often fails in this regard (it’s one thing to not be able to hunt down the artist, but a whole other thing … Continue reading Floating Mountains with Trees

Seven Pots for One Tree – What’s Your Choice?

Seven choices for Boon’s Kingsville boxwood. One stands out as by far the best choice for me, but I’m pretty sure we won’t all agree. Which pot would you choose? Boon Manakitivipart is at it again. Boon regularly posts his which pot? questions and we regularly borrow them. Judging by the response, it’s one of our most popular type posts, so as long as Boon is willing, we’ll keep putting them up. If you would like to share your choice, you can go to our facebook comments or you can go directly to the source (that would be Boon). Or you … Continue reading Seven Pots for One Tree – What’s Your Choice?