Henrik,
I'm glad I waited to respond until I got to your mail in my list. Many
things I was going to say...you did...so I won't! :)
To call it a "crappy" tree is surely not what I'd call accurate, but, Anton
is certainly welcome to his opinion. I've seen crappy, and I don't believe
this is it! Whether you really like the final styling ( as I do) or not you
still MUST agree that the foresight, planning, execution, and replaining
after proposed top died) is excellent. I'm a BIG fan of European bonsai and
the European Bonsai magazine by Farrand Bloch is the best out there ( in my
opinion). I doubly enjoy it because everything they work on, I work on and
grows here in Ohio. This styling is very common in the Euro Bonsai mag and
we often see long branches moved around the trunk to lower apex and fill-in
sides. This is mostly hidden by foliage but, can be seen sometimes by
looking up underneath the canopy. We don't really do this type of styling
much in the US but I think the results are wonderful. Again, this type of
styling is OFTEN seen in Kimura-styled trees. If you can get a copy of the
Euro bonsai mag you'll notice a more advanced ( again, my opinion) form of
styling and pot selection than I think you see here. Why, I couldn't say,
I've never been over there to check it out! They have many well trained
bonsai people, competitions and studios. It seems to pay off, in my
opinion.!
Regards,
Dale
----- Original Message -----
From: "Henrik Gistvall"
Subject: [IBC] An interesting tree and great stylist
Anton Nijhuis wrote:
I remember the article well and looked back on it after reading the
post. I had a mixed reaction when I originally read the article and
still do after exploring it again with your comments in mind.
The final results may look great but is it still a crappy tree? It is a
wonderful example of art but..........
Is it only a faįade? Things hidden behind things etc.
The main trunk branches etc. are shaped but do they possess the
qualities of a good tree, as defined by our peers. Will this tree ever
grow into a good tree?
Of course I can only respond through pictures and would love to see the
tree in reality.
This is probably a big difference between european and american artists.
Americans tend to be more influenced and probably more inhibited by
classic japanese bonsai, even more so then the japanese, this is
probably due to the fact of lots of japanese imigrants in the US. I
canīt say if itīs good or bad.
This way of styling bonsai is accepted in Europe. It gives new
possibilitys, what else could have been done with the tree in the article?
One must also ask what is OK what is not, after all there is always a
bit of illusion in bonsai styling. Iīv seen a fantastic classic bonsai
in BT where they wired all the secondary back branches on a big branch
to the front, to make the foliage cloud look fuller. Looking at the tree
from the front it looked great. From the side, maybe not so much. If it
looks good it looks good, it is as simple as that. It is the end result
that matters not how it was created. It would almost be like saying: "I
donīt like this tree because when I saw it in training it was poorly
wired."
I also think there is a 3D perspective to take in account. Some trees,
like a bunjin can probably look good from all sides. Iīve seen trees
that has two fronts. And there are probably formal upright trees wich
must be seen from the absolut front where a few ° makes a difference.
Iīm not always fond of this kind of work. Sometimes the end result is
just a green blob on a trunk but like Dales teacher said: "Sometimes the
magic works....and sometimes it doesn't" ;-)
Henrik Gistvall, Uppsala, Sweden
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