Walter_Pall

As Colin Lewis has pointed out we should not forget that bonsai are a tiny fraction of the size of their natural counterparts, They therefore need to be simpler in structure and form. Salient characteristics need to be enhanced and irrelevancies eliminated. So it is simply not feasible to just copy a large tree. A bonsai conveys not necessarily the exact appearance of a natural tree, but the sensation one feels when you see it. The most skillful artists magnify the sensation by presenting us only with those elements that create it. One can create this sensation by simplifying and idealizing the tree, by making it more and more abstract. Then it is a rather abstract bonsai. One can also create this sensation by using natural forms and details, then it becomes a more naturalistic bonsai. But it is still far away from a direct copy of a natural tree, it is still idealized somewhat and thus abstract; but less than the first one.
It would be a mistake to think that it is easier to create a good naturalistic bonsai than an abstract one. Exactly the contrary is true. A naturalistic bonsai resembles an ideal, a typical natural tree. What is normal should obviously be easy to create. But just like a graceful move in dance or athletics, it is deceptive in its simplicity. It looks so easy ... until you try to replicate it. Then the apparent simplicity is unmasked to reveal quite a bit of complexity. One has to appreciate that a bonsai always is abstract to some degree. The classical bonsai are quite abstract. There are well known rules or guidelines which tell us how to create a classical, abstract tree. But there are very few written rules which tell us how to create a naturalistic tree. The solution is not to just let a tree grow, cut it back and let it grow again. By this standard clip and grow method one gets a pruned tree. But it depends very much on how the tree was pruned. It can well become an abstract tree that way.
Reiner Goebel asks : " bonsai started out with 'natural' or 'naturalistic' plants, a thousand some odd years ago. It took all this time to get it to its present state of refinement. And now you want to turn the sun dial back?" No, not at all. This is what is meant: „Pause for a moment and think what you are doing. Bonsai is the art of giving a small tree in a pot the appearance of a large tree – or use any similar definition. Now, what are most doing? Are they looking at large, natural trees and try to bring this feeling onto their bonsai. Or are they looking at bonsai books, at rules and try to copy bonsai masterpieces and apply rules? The latter is the case. How about a painter who paints people and goes to museums, studies books, hides himself and paints what he KNOWS should be painted. When he walks on the street he sees real people, but not for as second it comes to his mind that these could be used as models. The real people don't conform to the rules this person has learned about "ideal" people. Change real people or change the rules?"
As John Naka has pointed out repeatedly and shown in his famous books, the bonsai enthusiast cannot look enough at natural big trees to get inspiration for his art. Lisa Kanishas noticed that bonsai influences the way one looks at trees in nature rather than the other way around. This is an interesting observation and explains why so many bonsai enthusiasts enjoy looking at trees and pictures of them, only to go back and design their bonsai to look like bonsai rather than natural trees. In discussions on the internet it is repeatedly pointed out that while a picture of a tree in nature can look beautiful to most people, this does not mean that it would look beautiful as bonsai. Meaning: if it breaks some classical bonsai rules!. How about that: a person that looks beautiful to most people does not look beautiful on a painting. Meaning: if it does not look like the "ideal" human being. How brainwashed can one get? This goes so far that bonsai people who see the picture of a natural tree that breaks some bonsai rules but that is considered most beautiful by the overwhelming majority of ordinary people will say that it is not a nice tree. They are not aware anymore that they are applying neo-classical bonsai rules to a natural tree and judging it by these, instead of using their common sense and change their rules according to reality.

A sub-category of the naturalistic style is the romantic style. Designs in this style drive the naturalistic side to the extreme, try to achieve a lovely tree or scenery also with inclusion of accessories like rocks and figurines. Examples are the water-and-land penjings of Qingquan Zhao and some creations of Nick Lenz.
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