Norman Rockwell’s Bonsai Painting

Just got this image from Robert Steven. He sent a whole package of fascinating images as run ups to his International Bonsai Art & Culture Biennale in October. We’ll be posting them regularly. Meanwhile, here’s a little known Norman Rockwell painting to get us started…. The image above is to help clue you in to Robert Steven’s International Bonsai Art & Culture Biennale in Indonesia. I think it’s going to be a unique and wonderful benchmark bonsai event. See you there! Meanwhile, the image just below has nothing to do with Roberts’ big event, but as long as we’re on … Continue reading Norman Rockwell’s Bonsai Painting

A Good Year for Bonsai Events

I like the flowing deadwood and the strong cinnamon vein on this powerful old tree. It’s from the 2013 Noelanders Trophy poster. The 2014 Noelanders Trophy poster is just below. While the year is still fresh, it seems like a good time to talk about some major bonsai events for 2014. Note the word some, no attempt will be made to list everything. Just a few to get started, with more to come later. Chronologically works best, so here goes… January 18-19. Fifteen straight years gives the Noelanders Trophy some real cachet. Great cast of characters too. February … Continue reading A Good Year for Bonsai Events

Year Round Bonsai

Dien Dàn Cây Canh Viet Nam is what the caption says. Both the tree and the language are Vietnamese, even though the photo and the other two in this post are from Indonesian Bonsai. It’s the tree above that caught my attention while scrolling through reams of facebook photos (part of the advantage of having several thousand facebook friends – there are disadvantages too, as you might imagine). Aside from the fact that it’s a dynamic tree with its powerful well-tapered trunk full of texture and movement, three staggered crowns and all the rest, there’s that thought that keeps popping … Continue reading Year Round Bonsai

Out of Thin Air

Robert Steven’s simulation of a tree that was submitted by David Royinsyah (below). Busy now, so once again we’ll borrow from the past (Robert Steven Transforms Raw Stock, March, 2011). It’s one of dozens of Robert Steven’s critiques that we’ve posted over the years and it’s one of my favorites. The transformation is total, almost as if Robert pulled his simulation out of thin air. And the result is so pleasing. Nuff said, here’s the original… Robert’s vision and artistry This one is quite unusual. The stock is totally raw and not that interesting. Robert simply manufactured all the branching … Continue reading Out of Thin Air

Rehashing Raw Stock

Robert Steven’s simulation of a tree that was submitted by David Royinsyah (below). Another broken promise Even though I promised I wouldn’t do any rehashed posts for a while, my day is already full and it just happens to be my birthday, so I’m going to cut myself a little slack. Anyway, what better to rehash than a Robert Steven critique? This one originally appeared almost three years ago. Robert’s vision and artistry This one is quite unusual. The stock is totally raw and not that interesting. Robert simply manufactured all the branching and the foliage from nothing and the … Continue reading Rehashing Raw Stock

Pretty Good, But Not Good Enough

Robert Steven’s simulation of a Pemphis acidula that was submitted by Nurul Fajri (the original photo is below). When I opened my email from Robert Steven and glanced at the before photo (below), I thought it was the after photo. But only for a moment. It’s the pot that gave it away. The rest looked pretty good. Beyond pretty good actually (some of us might trade our entire collections for a tree like this). But not good enough for Robert who always seems to find ways to improve any bonsai (maybe we should challenge him improve a Kimura masterpiece… just … Continue reading Pretty Good, But Not Good Enough

Penjing Vs Bonsai

Robert Steven’s simulation of a Japanese black pine that was submitted by Mike Liu (Mike’s original is below). Still out of town and still digging deep into our archives. This one is from almost three years ago (December 2010). It’s original title is: Robert Steven Critiques a Black Pine and Offers Some Insights into the Five Schools of Penjing. It’s one of many brilliant Robert Steven critiques, though, aside from starting with such a well developed tree, what sets it apart is Robert’s discussion of the five schools of Chinese Penjing. As you may know, Robert is a world famous … Continue reading Penjing Vs Bonsai

Which Is Which?

Don’t read this until you have looked at the all the photos first to see if you can tell which are bonsai and which are simulations. After that you can read this caption and the rest of the text. Ravaged by time but still dignified. By Robert Steven and the great outdoors. From facebook. Without reading the captions, can you tell which images are bonsai simulations and which are photos of bonsai? A distinction worth making is between Robert Steven’s actual bonsai and his bonsai simulations that periodically appear on this blog. Simulations that are so realistic that it’s difficult … Continue reading Which Is Which?

Some Question Marks

Judging by the background, this photo is from the 2013 BCI convention in China. Robert Steven sent us a bunch of great photos from this convention which we featured a while back (here, here and here). Maybe this is one that we missed. Anyway, I like the voluptuous, free-wheeling, unmanicured look. This photos and the others shown here are from Bonsai Phong. Lately we’ve been inundated with facebook friend requests from Vietnam. By the hundreds. This is in keeping with this statement by Robert Steven (from an earlier Bark post): “The interest in bonsai in Vietnam is amazing and unbelievable. … Continue reading Some Question Marks

A Penjing Pioneer

Windswept Japanese white pine tray planting by Zhao Qingquan. I think the wind in this case, is a gentle but persistent on shore breeze. I think the two best known Penjing artists in the world are Zhao Qingquan and Robert Steven (Robert refers to what he does as bonsai rather than penjing, but to my eye many, if not most, of his bonsai show strong penjing qualities and he is certainly one of the world’s authorities on the art and history of penjing). We’ve featured Robert numerous times here on Bark (his critiques are quite famous by now) but we’ve … Continue reading A Penjing Pioneer