Tuesday, May 22, 2007

EBA 2007, the demos - part 8

On Sunday there was demo with the Kawabe school, moderated by Danny Use. It was really a workshop with five participants on stage. They all had a scots pine in various stages of development.

The main point of the demo was to show that the sutdents did NOT DO MUCH. It was pointed out that in general trees are ruined by hurrying and that one only does what is necessary. In case of doubt DO NOTHING. And you should doubt often. The tree has to be in perfect health all of the time. Do not rush your development. Let the tree grow! Do to cut off too much at once. It is absolutely not important for the tree to looks good soon. It can look ugly for ten years and then finally come to it's full beauty.

concerning art there were a few eye openers:

- look at nature and not at bonsai books
- create a tree that looks like it does in nature
- rond tops, lots of branches all around, more branches in the front than in the back!!!
- not horizontal branches with negative space in between
- let nature be your guide.
- do not copy what other artist do. Learn from nature.

A perfect lecture about the naturalistic style.
I had this strong feeling that I had heard all of this before.

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