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Bonsai artistry

In the realm of bonsai, no other topic can stir emotion like artistry in bonsai. Bonsai has been practiced for nearly 2000 years. Many ancient scrolls from Egypt show dwarfed potted trees presented to the ancient kings. It has been said that the giant clay soldiers buried for hundreds of years in China, showed bleached living pines that began to show green growth when exposed to the light. Bonsai is an ancient practice and goes without say that a heritage so old is bound to be steeped with artistry after so many years.

Where's the art?

Many ask, “Why is bonsai compared to things like painting sculpture and music”. Why, because some of the exact same things that make these arts work is the same things that make bonsai work. Artistic intervention make things tidy and compact ready for the human eye to assimilate in a split second. Artistic intervention is what separates good craft from artistic bonsai. Just what does all this mean? Those that get it know exactly what I mean. Those that don’t will have a much more difficult time understanding something that is very hard to explain.

There are many analogies that could be used to explain what make artistic bonsai. For starters lets put it like this. Artistic bonsai are those that have all the basic rules of bonsai assembled in an artistic manner.

For instance, one could have all the carpenter tools and the wood to make a very nice stand. Without some artistic input, the stand is not going to display the artistry one would like to see in the stand. I get emails all the time for requests of custom stands. Almost always without exception the notes contain messages such as: Al I trust your judgment in this manner and know that you will make something that I will love. Talk about Pressure!

What about picking out bonsai material. The material may contain many of the rules of bonsai such as but not limited to; 1,2,3 branch, thick trunk, taper, and many branches, exposed nebari. But. Are they in the perfect artistic manner conducive to the perfectly tuned artistically styled tree? What if that first branch is a pocket branch, what if that thick trunk has some reverse taper? What if that perfect nebari is lacking on what might be that best front according to the best side of the trunk? While these might be limiting factors for the novice, they may be just challenges for the artist. This however, does not mean that every artist can turn marginal material into something spectacular.

Artist's vocabulary

Line and Form: The line of a bonsai usually refers to the shape of the trunk and the direction of emphasis of the foliage canopy. While form is the overall outline of the bonsai as a whole. The form can be styled many ways, and this is where the artistry part comes in.
The line of the trunk is very important in bonsai. I think the trunk line is the single most important detail when choosing correct stock. Many things can be compensated for on artistic manipulation, such a poor branching, or missing branching. But poor trunk is almost impossible to overcome without many years of growing and hoping that the trunk will improve. Better to buy a more artistic trunk from the get go.

Composition: This is best described as the story. Just what exactly are you trying to make this bonsai say. Is it a calm lowland tree or a craggy barely able to stay alive semi-cascade. Saikai and Penjing scenes require great levels of artistry to be successful. Forest plantings can be a real challenge, and poor artistry in the composition will spoil the overall effect.

S-Curve: This again refers to mainly the trunk area. Though, branches can be great places to show off subtle s-curves. The trunk should move with fluid movement and not be jerky in the line. The branches should be at the ends of the curves and should flow off the trunk with fluid movement also. The bonsai artist will correct these deficiencies if present to make the bonsai more artistic.

Visual Speed: Bonsai that are artistic are viewed by the human eye in a split second. The brain processes this information very quickly, at the speed of light, and instantly tells the viewer, “stay here take more of this in”, or “ please move on to the next tree I’m bored”. Confusing lines and form will cause the eye to move in different directions and not stay focused on the bonsai as a whole. The eye should start at or near the base of the tree move through the entire trunk line to the apex and back down to the bottom. At this point the brain says, “Hey, there are cool branches for me to look at too”.

These artistic viewpoints are probably the most important and the ones most often used when designing bonsai. There are many others that can be introduced but come under the heading of more advanced techniques and really only cloud what I am trying to say. Things like texture, perspective, shadow, forced perspective, and negative space.
Now here’s the rub.
There is no book: “Artistic Bonsai for Dummy’s”, and there should not be. Bonsai is not done by the book. This is where communication gets confusing when comparing paintings and sculpture and music to bonsai. A lot of people think that to do artistic bonsai you first have to get your tree and tools together and sit down with a book called “Artistic Theory, and how it translates to bonsai”. Come on get real! The talented Bonsaiest will know these artistic viewpoints and how they relate to bonsai.

During the course of styling the bonsai, line and form, composition, S-curve and Visual speed will all be in the back of the bonsai artists mind. The talented artist will be able to better cope with deficiencies in the stock and make the tree better with horticultural technique. Best to get a book at the library and study these simple viewpoints.

To dissect some of the things I posted a few days ago.

On this tree, I decided to jin the right branch because the excellent s-curving trunk view was spoiled by the branch on the right. The foliage mass did not seem to carry the top of the trunk in a fluid motion. I felt that by streamlining the branch to its basic form, the line I was hoping for would become dominate. Which it did. The tree on the right shows this in blue. Notice how the trunk line on the tree on the left stops when it reaches the foliage mass above it.
The tree on the left also has some misshapen foliage pads. They are more like pom-poms and do nothing for the look of the tree. They ruin the visual speed of the tree by distracting the viewer when seeing the tree for the first time. Your eye is immediately hopping all around the tree trying to take each individual foliage group in.
The tree on the left has some terrible things going on in the trunk department. The trunk is very nice near the bottom, but all of a sudden turns into an upside down question mark. This is a stopping point for the eye also. When the eye gets here it just circles and starts to try to figure out why “I was going so good and ran into a roadblock”
The green lines in both photos represent the height of the tree at present. The ratio for this tree is 10/1. A very good number for a Bunjingi tree. The tree at present is 7.5 inches tall with a .75” trunk. The original tree was 12” tall with the same trunk, or 16/1. Much to great for a Moyogi tree which it was in the latter configuration.

The yellow line thru the right picture is where Walter Pall suggested the apex of the tree should be pointing. I may change this in the spring during repotting to see if it is something that works. Maybe someone will do a virtual.

Attached Images

artistic efforts.jpg (38.3 KB, 503 views)

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It's about time that the proper respect be given to the fine art of balloon animals...

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