Styling a bonsai in the image of a real tree

Treebeard

Good day to all,

There is this oak tree that grows about 5 miles from me, and it has the most charming form...

There is this unpreposessing little chinese elm on my bench that has some potential...

For the last few months there has been an image in my mind of the oak tree sitting in a pot on my bench in miniature form...

What say you?

Has any one styled a bonsai after a real, live, bona fide tree in nature? If you have, do you have any pictures of the subject matter and end result?

Regards,

Chris.

Attached Images

	model.jpg (67.1 KB, 103 views)
	before.jpg (66.4 KB, 134 views)
	target1.jpg (62.9 KB, 168 views)

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pootsie

Kudos, Mr. Treebeard.

pootsie

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soonami

I style trees with an image of my mind that is really a collage of trees I've seen through my life, but actually styling a tree in the exact form of another I have not. There are some really nice old garden Japanese Maples and wild Beech that I have seen that are certainly deserving of such treatment

ozzy

Nice work Treebeard.

taipan(deceased)

Well done Treebeard, I think your on the right track to where bonsai began in the first place....

I practise what's called Rainforest bonsai....I like portraying magnificent trees I look at everyday...

I'm sort of tired of doing Idealistic bonsai compared to realistic...

Happy growing mate
TAI

jersanct

That's lovely, Treebeard.


And I was happy enough with the gratuitous photo of a mighty English oak.

Treebeard

Sorry folks, I thought it was obvious that the third picture was a virtual... . I haven't done the styling yet, I was prompted into posting my ideas for this bonsai by Redpine's thread on deciduous literati.

Regards,

Chris.

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"Do not be hasty, that is my motto"
-JRR Tolkien, The Two Towers.
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wabashene

Hi Chris,

Good call for a thread and I'll leave the question of whether or not we design bonsai to look like real trees or design trees to look like bonsai for another time and thread.

:-)

Have tried this at least once and here is/was the result.

This Pinus Sylvestris stood outside the gates of Reading Uni Sports grounds on Shinfield Rd and I drove past it frequently one of my "rat runs" into central Reading each morning.

It had an amazing hanging branch at the back which you can just about make out.

I was extremely dismayed to discover that it has been felled in the last few weeks to make way for the entrance to a new complex of some sorts. If I'd known about it I might have chained myself to it.:-)

I thought that I'd trashed the photo but found it on the home PC just now.

I nearly threw this sawara cypress (chamaecyparis psifera?) away until this gave me some inspiration and then I went and killed it by doing the re-potting in May with an accompanying heavy root prune.

Hey ho.

2003 -04 incarnations on the far right.

I had some good natured criticism of this tree elsewhere and here's what I said about it.

"Now you don't like the foliage but this looks just like the Scots Pine outside Reading Uni gates by my fave local fruit shop with the tiny little chamy needles mimicking the Scots and now you want me to make it look like a bonsai...........................?

Regards

TimR

Attached Images

sawara as sylvestris.jpg (70.7 KB, 81 views)

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Mcspeed

Well done Chris, even though I missed the virt too. won't take much to put the finishing touches on though. I like it.

Bill