Display Stand Mistakes

K.A. Rutledge

Hi all,

I was just looking at the recent PNBCA show images at their site

http://psba.8m.com/con2003/images/exhibit/exhibit1.html

Note - the link above comes up broken at the moment - try http://psba.8m.com/pic/spring03/03ss2.html, as several pages have the same problem Andy is discussing here. Regards, Editor

and am compelled to talk about pot placement on bonsai display stands. I am not singling these images out as offenders, just using these as examples of what is common in the U.S.. Here, few know how to put a bonsai on a stand and it makes for an aggravating viewing experience (and diminished aesthetics).

Some here may already know this and some may not so in the FWIW department, let me point out that bonsai should be placed directly in the center of the display stand (right to left) and as close to center as possible (front to back), allowing for any perimeter inlays in the surface of the table. Perimeter inlays should not be covered up by the pot (so the pot goes inside any surface inlays in the table).

Too many mistakenly believe that the pot should be placed slightly to one side of the display table, just as a tree is placed to one side inside a rectangle or oval bonsai pot. This is a mistake. The pictorial mentioned above (and countless others) is marred several times by this mistake, ruining otherwise nice images.

Anyway, I hope that more artists will learn this basic element of bonsai display and that our various clubs' displays will improve.

Kind regards,
Andy Rutledge
www.bonsai365.com/
zone 8, Texas

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Jay

Andy, a question, I have several wood slab display bases, not actually stands/tables but used as in the above link display page 6 last entry. Some are unusual shaped, rugged etc, some have raised platform areas off center. Does the display in the center come into effect here? If so I can at least learn to correctly display my trees, even if they are not yet specimens. In the case of the raised area pieces do I center to the middle of the raised area? or to the center of visual mass of the wood?

Thanks
Jay

__________________
A Bonsai student living with his trees at N 44.37 W 77.49...
Think before you act... then think again... no good comes from rushing

K.A. Rutledge

Hi Jay,

No, with natural display slabs, display is a bit more freform. It is usually best to place the pot off-center on a display woodslab. My prior comments were about tables only.

However, if the display slab is rectangular or oval (rigid form as opposed to natural ruggedness), the tree goes right in the center again.

Kind regards,
Andy Rutledge
www.bonsai365.com/
zone 8, Texas

Jay

Interesting!

When we (our at least I) first get into Bonsai, we think of it as a wonderful, beautiful Thing. I never thought of any of the parts I have learned in my quest about the 'other' important things in Bonsai. The pot- what color, what shape, what size... The placement of the tree in that pot. The Display, accent plants and the proper stand for the tree and now the proper position on the stand of the tree. All things that are never thought of by the casual passerby at a display but as we learn, all important issues in maximizing the visual at the display....

Thanks for the insight
Jay

__________________
A Bonsai student living with his trees at N 44.37 W 77.49...
Think before you act... then think again... no good comes from rushing

grampz

Andy, This is a very interesting subject that to be honest I had never considered, heard, or read about...I agree it seems a shame to cover nice inlay work on a display stand, and to place the pot in the center of the stand is definately more visually pleasing...

I do have a question though...Without covering any inlay, does it not create a better visual balance to place a semi-cascade or slanting trunk style slightly to one side of center, away from the foliage?

Also a comment on the website in your link...I do apperciate the time taken to give a brief history and comments about the trees shown...This is a nice added touch from the webmaster or designer of the site...

Thanks for the heads-up and the link...

Regards
Behr

Bart Thomas(deceased)

Andy:

Thanks for the heads up.

At Bill Valavanis recent symposium, during the critique, Shinji Suzuki commented that many of the trees ought not to be on "hard cornered" stands. He was not necessarily talking about using ovals, but simply rounded corners on rectangular stands.

Would you please elaborate on this?

Thanks.

K.A. Rutledge

Hi Bart,

I couldn't say what Mr. Suzuki was specifically referring to and have seen very few rectangular stands with rounded corners. Surely, the basic thrust of his points was that some trees are so feminine that the masculine or harsh corners might present an uncomfortable conflict in the overall image, but this is just my guess. Sorry that I can't really speak to his idea.

Kind regards,
Andy Rutledge
www.bonsai365.com/
zone 8, Texas

K.A. Rutledge

Behr, you ask:
"I do have a question though...Without covering any inlay, does it not create a better visual balance to place a semi-cascade or slanting trunk style slightly to one side of center, away from the foliage?"
------------

No, that is sometimes an issue for the pot, but not the stand. The stand is like the frame to a picture. The picture still goes right in the middle of the frame, even when the visual weight of the painting is to one side (virtually always). Placing a semi-cascade or slanting tree to the lighter side of the stand induces imbalance into a mechanism that is supposed to bring balance and stability (the stand).

The stand serves an entirely different function in relation to the tree than does the pot. Repeating the same "compensation" in the pot and on the stand is superfluous. If the tree is planted to one side in the pot, the balance has already been addressed. Addressing it again (with the stand) reintroduced the imbalance.

I know this sounds convoluted, but I hope it helps.

Kind regards,
Andy Rutledge
www.bonsai365.com/
zone 8, Texas

grampz

Thanks Andy, I just never thought of the concept of the stand being like a frame, and therefore only complimenting the total visual image...



This makes a lot of sense...It certainly gives me another thing to consider when displaying a tree...

Thanks
Behr