The big fella was busy for the two days and keen to help and dispense advice. A man with a true love of bonsai.
Burrs Artists in Action – Rob Atkinson
Tag Archives: photographs of trees
Burrs Artists In Action – Pavel Slovák
Language isn’t a barrier in bonsai as art is universal. Pavel was a top bloke and a true artist.
Burrs Artists In Action – Terry Foster
This gallery contains 12 photos.
Back To Reality
After a weekend away at Burrs I finally made it back to home at 11pm last night. I wish I had booked today off work but sadly I had to trudge in this morning. I’m only now able to wade through about 800 photos and video clips taken over the 3 days. I’ll be posting some of these during the week to show some of the exploits, wonders, weirdos, and even a few trees for the event 🙂
Tony invited me as a guest to Burrs back in March, an offer I’d be silly to turn down. I had heard a lot about Burrs from many sources, some were great reviews but some were not so complimentary. I’m a great believer in making my own mind up. My own verdict, I can truly state that Burrs is a great environment for bonsai learning, one of the best I have experienced in 20 years. As you know I count friendship as a major part of bonsai and Burrs has also added to that experience. I have made many new friends, some old ones met for a catch up and a few folk who I talk to on a weekly basis on the net that I was able to finally meet in the flesh. Looking back the nay sayers, in the main were those who had never been to Burrs, I think that says it all! Make your own mind up, sign up for 2015.
To Mr & Mrs T, thank you yet again for a great weekend, your hospitality was second to none and I truly enjoyed every second of it, well maybe not the early morning noises coming through the wall of Burrs room!!, but you know what I mean. 🙂
Here are a few sample photos but many more to follow as I wade though the folder. I think these capture a little of what the weekend was all about.
Syohin Bonsai Kitakyusyu Branch Exhibition
Sharing these courtesy of Nekotoban Bonsai Days Blog which you should all be following if you are a lover of Shohin Bonsai. She has been doing the rounds of Shohin Exhibitions in Japan, many of which we rarely see here in the west. This is a great insight into display and quality at more local exhibitions in Japan.
Chojubai
Beech Winter Image
Front
Back
Trident Autumn Colours
And Now for Something Completely Different..
I have been working my way through a few Scots Pines in the last few weeks giving them an initial styling. They were collected from a bog a few years back and have grown well.
As with most bog pines they are tall and straight with not much as the bottom to work with. This one however had an unusual lower branch which I wanted to retain. We often are too quick to remove what we deem as a ‘fault’ when it can actually make the main feature of the tree. Who wants to look at the same boring tree images again and again? Indeed, who wants to style the same boring tree images again and again?
This was it before I started.
And this is it after some wiring. As usual the photo doesn’t show the back to front trunk and branch movement. Some branches need to extend and as it fills I can create a more convincing image, but for a first styling I am happy with the result.
British Shohin Bonsai (BSB)
As a BSA now BSB member, I just wanted to share the information below with you.
Last Saturday saw the official “launch” of British Shohin Bonsai and interest in the group is already taking off well.
We have used “launch” in inverted commas as it is more a case of revamping of an older familiar face. BSB has arisen from the British Shohin Association which was the first and only Shohin and small sized bonsai society in the UK for nearly eight years. Sadly, as with many clubs and societies, the BSA was finding it difficult to get people to take on the administrative functions necessary to run an organisation.
But rather than let the momentum of the BSA fizzle out, a group of members took it upon themselves to progress the group in a manner that involved an entirely new way of doing things.
Accepting that a sizeably large number of people wish to source their bonsai knowledge and indulge their bonsai passion online, the BSB decided that they would relaunch using an internet presence as the main method of reaching the bonsai public. A new Facebook group has been established to front this process, along with a new website.
As with the BSA, the aim of the new group is to promote the smaller sizes of bonsai, and while the online presence allows us to this through discussion, we will also be retaining the best bits of the BSA – namely the Exhibition and the Journal. These, along with occasional workshops and demonstrations, will allow us to develop people’s practical skills.
The name change is simply because we felt that a slight change of “branding” was needed. This is mostly to give due respect to the sterling work done by the officers of the previous incarnation. It is truly good that most of them are coming with us on our new journey and we hope that freeing them up from the shackles of a committee position will allow them more freedom.
Although there is no formal membership for BSB, we will be introducing a Supporters set-up whereby in return for a small one-off donation, you get access to the Journals and reduced price entry to BSB events.
Shohin bonsai has certainly taken off in the past few years and the former BSA was instrumental in that happening. We hope to continue that momentum and to take smaller sized bonsai to even greater , erm… heights.
To see more please use the links below:
http://britishshohinbonsai.com/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1389090284673009/
Bonsai Eejit 