Water and land equal mud

bonsaial1

Thought I might like to play with some images and see what I could come up with. I fired up the old digital imager and started cutting and pasting, drawing lines, and before you know it I had a new folder full penjing water and land compositions with lines and stuff all over the place. I think I have it sorted out now and will try to present it here for review.

I planned on working with this photo since it offered the best possibilities for success. During my critique this was the one that got me the most excited. I felt that of all the photo's posted by Ron, this was the first one that spoke.
None of the other photo's spoke to me, and none of them kept my attention for long.

First some musings about Zhao. While looking through most of his works it becomes increasingly clear that trees in trays that are devided into two or more groups need to compliment each other. I have found that all his work carries the same theme throughout his work. His groups bow to each other. The trees form inward bowing arcs that converge in the middle. In some of his work, the convergence may not be in the middle, but if you squint, you can see the lines that draw your eye to the center.

The pictures are pretty self explanatory.

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	d.jpg (33.6 KB, 80 views)
	dred.jpg (20.5 KB, 86 views)
	gal1024red.jpg (40.9 KB, 93 views)

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bonsaial1

In my critique, I said that the trees needed to bow to one another. I think that could be one of the things that would really improve this composition.

What if one group were reversed?

What if the legs were removed?

What if the moss covered just soil instead of the gravel?

Would it be improved, or am I just a gas bag?
( I already know Jay's answer, welcome back!)

Attached Images

newtry.jpg (29.8 KB, 68 views)

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bonsaial1

I tried editing out the black background, and thought I would put into one of Zhao's trays just to see what it would look like.

The background did not come out as clean as I wanted, and after the background was gone the trees looked pretty weird in shape. I'm not to sure what the shape of those trees are but they could use some work.

I have played with the heights of the groups and, rotated them to achieve the look that I wanted. I also reversed the one group like in the previous photo.

All opinion, just a different one for thought.

Love, Al

Attached Images

mytry.jpg (20.2 KB, 60 views)

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ianb

Hi Al,

The rearrangement you did in the pot does not work for me, however when move to the tray it does look a little better (need to sort out those trunks, I'm sure Ron will put me straight here, but this seems to be a case of "can't use these for anything else so might as well make a group from them" - and Ron I think you made a pretty good job of it - but I digress).

The original group works as all the trees are telling the same story - on a hillside blown by the wind.

When the one group is rotated the story does not work, they have no reason to be leaning together, however when moved to the tray there is now a river between them and they are trees on a riverbank leaning over the water.

Well thats "my story", please excuse the rambling.

Cheers
Ian

bonsaial1

HI Ian, if you are the owner of this group, could you provide us with some details on how it was put together, who worked on it, and how its doing now?

Tall order I know, but I'm sure it will be worth it.

Thanks, Al

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ianb

Sorry Al, nope its not mine.

Ian

Carl_Bergstrom

Hi Al,

Interesting exercise. I agree, the visual relations and "lines of sight" among separate subgroups play an important role in much of Zhao's land-and-water work.

However, the "bowing to one another across the center" works much better in the context of a central river, which is absent in the original composition. As Brook explained in his workshop, trees often lean over rivers, both because of erosion but more importantly because of the elimination of light competition - nothing is growing up from the middle of the river to shade them out!

When there is no river running through it, the bowing and visual relations among the trees in Zhao's compositions take a much more subtle form. Compare that Zhao-created image that I posted in the other thread:



No river through the middle, no overtly inward bowing. Thus your new composition is not particularly successful until you transplant it on either side of a river - and then you still should change placing and planting angles somewhat to account for the new environment of light competition or the lack thereof.

Of course, doing this all properly requires a balance of artistic considerations with ecological ones; Zhao's brilliance comes from his ability to satisfy both, placing trees in ways that both look good, and that look natural. (And that's not to even to begin discussing his alchemy with the placement of stones...)

Best regards,
Carl

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bonsaial1

Carl, Good points. Yet if you follow those trunks, they still keep the eye focused where Zhao wants your eye. Front and center.

I like the small element of chaos that has been introduced so as to say " I will grow this way and become big and strong!"

The other posted for comparison. This tray just runs my eye off the the left and it never comes back.

Though subtle, he uses trunks to always keep the viewer focused.

This is probably the no. one artistic rule there is...

Keep them transfixed on the sweet spot!
Al

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	gal1025red.jpg (45.3 KB, 36 views)
	Zhao_small redlines.jpg (40.1 KB, 21 views)
	dred.jpg (20.5 KB, 19 views)

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jportock

I agree with Al about the trunks that bow to one another keeping a better balanced image for a piece. However, I also think that the composition should reflect what may actually occur in nature.

I think that the first image in Al's orignal post forces the viewer to move on to the left. In combination with another piece this could be helpful but as a stand alone what it says to me is, "Keep moving buddy, nothing to see here!"

I thought maybe the visual weight could be shifted to the right to compensate for that and that inspired the following virtual.
It also occured to me that there may be something missing from this piece when viewing it in 2D. I'd be interested to see if my opinion would change when viewing all 3 dimensions.

I'm just a novice so please point out the flaws in my logic .

Artisically,
JP

Attached Images

dred.jpg (19.4 KB, 16 views)

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