Well, the question that comes to my mind in reading all these comments is
o you have to be an artist to create a tree that can be called a bonsai according to the rules ?
If it was so, I certainly would not be involved in trying to do bonsai as I am trying today because I know very little of the rules of art. When I decided 2 years ago to make a try in bonsais, all the references and web sites I reffered to did not mention anything about the artisitic part of bonsai. They gave the different rules for styling bonsai and the horticultural needs for keeping the trees alive.
So, since in my career I was involved in agricultural sciences, I knew I had enough horticultural knowledge to be successful in growing a tree in a pot and keep it alive. What I needed to find out is what are the established rules for making a successful bonsai and the different methods bonsaists take to style trees according to the species and the so many different styles that can be used. I found this information in all the good web sites that explained the methods used for making a good bonsai, especially in this forum.
One thing that I learned for sure is that a person must have a good horticultural knowledge to grow a tree as a bonsai and to be able to keep it alive for as long as possible. After mastering this very important initial basic part, the person must then learn the rules of styling. This can be learned by practise and experience and maybe this is also where the art part can be used to improve the looks of the tree.
But if you are not an artist can you still suceed in creating a good bonsai? If this is true it would just be a matter of luck for a person who only applied the rules of styling without bothering with those of art. So, the only thing I can say is that you must be a very good horticulturist for creating and maintaining a good bonsai but you don’t really have to be an artist unless you plan to make a masterpiece and in this case you can possible get help from an artist to obtain such a result.