Glad you like, Wes.

Here's another few minutes' worth of the old GIS (gotta love it!)
http://www.indiana.edu/~sierra2/new...dam_juniper.jpg
http://raysweb.net/paria/pages/33.html
http://raysweb.net/paria/pages/29.html
http://raysweb.net/paria/pages/23.html
http://raysweb.net/paria/pages/18.html
http://dingo.sbs.arizona.edu/~hharl...atorJuniper.jpg
http://www.physics.arizona.edu/~mil...atorjuniper.jpg
http://pages.prodigy.net/ecmorris/jpgs/0602c.jpg
http://www.mscphotography.com/landscape/mitten.jpg
http://www.panoramicnaturephotograp...57221990741.jpg
http://www.painetworks.com/photos/el/el1035.JPG
http://www.maion.com/photography/_photos/finl0576.jpg
http://www.terragalleria.com/images...u/zion0774.jpeg

pootsie

When I want to do my best hunting for material, I go up into the high buttes of northwest Nebraska, known as the Pine Ridge region. I have seen some trees there that I would not presume to try to move (way too big and way too precious to risk). The only real difference between them and some of the most extreme deadwood bonsai I have seen is some wire brushing, some lime sulpher, some pinching, and some feeding and watering over time. If I was fortunate enough to actually find one small enough and with adequate roots to move and keep alive, then to have the grand privilege of training and caring for the tree for what remains of my passing lifetime, and then pass the tree on to another, who would continue to train and care for it...

...I think I would call it Bonsai.

Pootsie, I want that pine in your last link, wow dude!!!!

When it comes to tree art, my favorite artist is Claus Sievert, a native of Germany who has lived in California since around 1980. Claus has traveled all over the mountains of California and made drawings and photos of great trees. Then, in his studio he makes copper plate etchings and then makes prints that are signed and numbered. In the past 25 years, I have acquired 14 of Claus's prints that I proudly display on one wall of my living room.
Check the link to see some of his work. You will see lots of deadwood done in photographic detail.

http://www.claussievert.com/prints.htm

Mike

http://www.usna.usda.gov/Gardens/co...r_32.html#Slide


This is one of the most unique specimens I've ever seen. It never seems real to me.

I think of bonsai as taking all the "positives" from trees in nature and putting them together into one tree... Some people like the "natural look", but sometimes that is too boring.

Yeah, OK, . Trees can look like that. I can remember a while back, people telling me that bonsai like the one Lordy linked to are not what trees look like, and I'd come back with pictures similar to your links.

But then I came to realise, I never see such trees in nature. The places I go to in England don't have such trees. There probably are such trees somewhere in England, but I don't go to the places where they live. I like the gentle lowland countryside, with its typical sycamore brooms and the stag-headed oaks, and the hollow beeches ans so on.

And there are some pretty strange looking trees in these environments... especially the pollarded beeches. But they seem fundamentally different to the high-altitude pines, even though they have similarly fantastical shapes.

Maybe if I lived in the Rockies I would be saying "yeah, but trees don't look like that" with finger extended towards a neat, round broom...

Regards,

Chris.

I can totally identify with what you are saying, Treebeard. My climate and conditions are much like yours, and with the same results. That's why I have to google for the cliff-dwellers, instead of hiking out to find them

pootsie

tree art, hmmm fair call

Ralph, or anyone who wants a tree like this for your collection, I recommend a visit with Andy Smith at:

http://www.goldenarrowbonsai.com

As for the severe specimen from the national arboretum, I can find trees like this in the wild within 15 miles from home. Takes a little doing to get where they are, but it's worth the hike.