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.

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It was suggested that the Jin be removed from the tree, as it is conflicting. I am not so sure of this.
The scalene triangle is the simplest form for the human eye to find beauty in. It has three sides, they are un-equal, and they fit the rules of bonsai. In this view I outline the scalene triangle using the Jin as the base run.

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In this view the Jin has been removed and the triangle now becomes equilateral, or boring. This is not the traditional shape for a Bunjingi tree. It is too symmetrical.

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Artist or Talented Artist

You have all the components for a forest bonsai. The trees are differing heights, and the trunks are varied. You have seven trees because you heard that forests should be in odd numbers. The trees are healthy and ready to be placed in the appropriate container, which you saved up to buy for 6 months. The next weekend the trees are assembled in the pot and you display the forest for the first time. The onlookers cock their heads and have a puzzled look on their faces.
What went wrong?

All the steps were followed; all the rules of bonsai are there. Your planting looks like the one on the left.


Somehow this artist forgot the viewpoint of artistic composition. Using the same trees, and placing them differently in the pot, a much nicer composition comes alive. This forest also makes use of negative space, which creates drama for the viewer. This negative space is the only artistic touch that helps make this bonsai tell a story. Remember, storytelling in bonsai is what it is all about. Now your forest looks like the one on the right.

Maybe the viewer sees themselves in a meadow between the trees, or maybe there is a deer grazing in the glade. Maybe it is just a place “to let the birds fly through”. Thanks, John.

To sum it all up…
One can have all the pieces to make good bonsai. They can follow the rules to the letter. But..if they are not assembled artistically the tree will fall flat.

Regards, Al Keppler

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Al one of the best articles on Bonsai artistry I have ever read.

Fascinating thread, Al.

A comment about that jin.

I think you're right, it needs to stay.

But there is something that bothers me about it.

At first, I thought that it lead the eye in two different directions. I thought maybe my eye started at the base of the trunk, moved up, and then didn't know whether to exit stage right along the profile of the jin, or stage left through the direction of the canopy.

Then I changed my mind. The eye doesn't really start at the base of the tree, the eye starts at the canopy. (I think. Can anyone with a better understanding of these matters help me out? Following the "Natural course of the eye" through an image strikes me as akin to trying not to think of a white elephant.) I think my starts with the canopy, and sweeps downward as in the solid orange arrow in this picture. The problem is, once I reach the jin, the eye follows it instead of the wonderful curve of the trunk as indicated by the dashed arrow.

My proposed solution is to reduce but not remove the jin, so that it leads down and into the general line of the trunk instead out and away. I show this in the second image, where the visual flow is indicated in the red arrow. A bit of foliage further down helps, as does a redirection and shortening of the canopy.

Then you'll have an image with much better visual flow. Walter's advice with respect to the canopy is spot-on and will help as well. In retrospect even my second virtual left too triangular and upright of a canopy to harmonize with the trunk lines. I prefer the canopy as indicated with the blue lines in the second picture.

I'll try to put a virtual together at some point; right now I don't have access to my drawing tablet.

Best wishes,
Carl

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Image #2

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I think you might got something there....

I see your tree as based on a curvilinear trunk with a triangular piedmont. Each has separate weight and texture. The larger mass is darker and recessive, the smaller is lighter and more prominent. The predominant mass is formed by the trunk leading through the jinn, the secondary of the foliage. As my eye moves up the trunk, I am diverted from the foliage to the outward point of the jinn. They disrupt the free flow, visually, to the apex. Sending my eyes to look right, away from the tree. To me this is discordant. If you follow the trunk line down the tree, you hit a baseline of foliage. The trunk does not have enough visual impact to overcome this divergence, possibly if the lower right foliage were reduced to expose the trunk’s reverse curve, this could be avoided. The line of the trunk appears to end in the jinn. When I first saw the picture I had to look twice to see the connection between the trunk and the foliage, I still find it visually enigmatic.

{edit} I agree with Carl, reducing the mass of the jinn to bring the eye back to the trunk would cause me to the see the whole tree in a more fluid manner.

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Al,

I like this tree a lot. The jin should definitely stay. I don't think it's too much but only needs refinement. A couple of year's ago, I attended a lecture by Joe Day on the use of deadwood and one thing really stuck with me. Only put deadwood where you want the eye to be drawn. The highlight pulls the eye like a magnet and should be used as a tool to enhance the flow of the line. I think you, Carl & Walter are headed in the right direction.

Best Regards,

David

BTW,,,, Joe Day is one of the teachers out there preaching artistic design principles as they relate to bonsai.