AusBonsai

i brought myself 2 koreshoff books today as im looking to get into aus natives, they are great! i will be getting deborahs book aswell its a bit harder to hunt down though.

i picked up her book a couple of days ago, best bonsai book ive read so far! 10/10

The best ever written in the Western World
Now I have read Naka's book I can say that

I bought Deb's book the other day as well, A great read and very indepth.

MelaQuin wrote:In late January 2008 she sold all her trees, gave up bonsai after being heavily involved since the age of 7 and went to artistic pursuits that did not require watering or styling. It is a great loss to the bonsai community but Deborah is shy and did not like to be centre stage or put herself forward. It is a pity as she had her parent's magic in her hands.

A couple of months ago I received a request from an international enthusiast for her contact details and he was advised that 'she was out of bonsai and not responding to queries'.

Well ... I purchased Deborah's book today. Second hand, paperback edition - I was paging through it at the BSV show and was impressed enough to put in under my arm. Then some experienced growers explained that I had picked up quite a famous Australian book.

So ... now at home and for once quiet on a Saturday night, I was interested enough to look into the background and stumbled across this thread.

Wow! What a wonderful exit. Someone so skilled, clearly humble and shy and bang! One day Deborah is there ... and then gone and it seems, all trace of her trees. Wow!

10 years on ... anyone prepared to post a photo. Please.

There are two of Deborah's trees at the National Collection. I think they bear her name, at her request/agreement. We too honoured her wishes about no attribution of artist. In recent years she visited the collection a number of times and grew to greatly like what she saw, and thus became happy with the acknowledgement of her work.

Kunzea wrote:There are two of Deborah's trees at the National Collection. I think they bear her name, at her request/agreement. We too honoured her wishes about no attribution of artist. In recent years she visited the collection a number of times and grew to greatly like what she saw, and thus became happy with the acknowledgement of her work.

Cheers, for the response Kunzea. Appreciated.

I have been to the National collection but only for about one hr in between meetings - I will come back. I probably saw Deborah's trees. Are you able to say which they were. I guess it does not really matter - they may have changed markedly. Regardless, I am now a fan and I really appreciate the legacy that Debrah left by way of her writing.

I have now spent two nights in and out of the book; it is quite brilliant. I am stoked to have purchased it. The fact that it is Australian and the manner in which it is written with supportive line drawing makes for an engaging, informative and easy to understand book. Indeed, her description of using moss and why liverwort is so crus was also helpful; I heard to kill it with vinegar (just this weekend as it happens) but I did not understand why it was such a problem for bonsai until I read Deborah's explanation.

I am loving this book!

PS - she would like the use of my figurines .... oh well, can't please 'em all.

To clarify .... in my PS above - I noted that Deborah would like my use of figurines. Correction - I missed the word ‘not’; Deborah was ‘not’ a fan and advised caution. I still like the little blighters - that may change when my trees are good enough to stand alone. [SMILING FACE WITH SMILING EYES]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

One of my favorite bonsai books of all time, I picked up a hardcover version about year ago.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

My very good friend Roger urged me to read above all Deborah's book suggesting it is "the book" - I managed to secure a second hand hardcover copy in excellent condition which was delivered yesterday - only several pages into a thorough reading and I am impressed

John(JP)
CBS

Yep, the more I read, the more I like Deborah’s writing and indeed the clarity of her line art too.

As a related aside - more on the mystery around Deborah’s collection and wherever it went. My step father was visiting his family in QLD (Samford area) about a year ago and was lucky enough to be invited in to view a wonderful private Bonsai collection held by a real estate business man. My step dad noted that this fine and friendly man had learned from Deborah and may have had one or two of her trees. Cool. Small world. [SMILING FACE WITH SMILING EYES]


Bonsai teaches me patience.

Kunzea wrote:There are two of Deborah's trees at the National Collection. I think they bear her name, at her request/agreement. We too honoured her wishes about no attribution of artist. In recent years she visited the collection a number of times and grew to greatly like what she saw, and thus became happy with the acknowledgement of her work.

And here is a photo of one of Deborah’s Bonsai - now in Canberra.

Bonsai teaches me patience.

Being a Victorian, the main influences that I had were, about creativity from Linday and Marietta Farr, bonsai natives with Ted and Shirley Poynton. and disregard all the rules with Max Leversha. I also have much respect for Trevor McCombs from Bonsai Art, and his knowledge and dedication to the art I love. As you can see back in the 80s we had some brilliant bonsai artists. I never studied with any of them, but just their interaction and friendships made a huge influence on my appreciation of the art.

How lucky were Newcastle Bonsai to get her to join us for an after show Critique for our members trees in 2016. Not a flattering pic but a pure pleasure to have her before her trip out to Wales,UK. She thoroughly enjoyed it.

Alan Peck wrote: ↑March 17th, 2022, 8:13 am How lucky were Newcastle Bonsai to get her to join us for an after show Critique for our members trees in 2016. Not a flattering pic but a pure pleasure to have her before her trip out to Wales,UK. She thoroughly enjoyed it.
DK2016.jpg

Isn't that Dot in the pic.
I lived 30min from the nursery and spent a lot of time there in the 90's. The BSA stored show props and had our committee meetings there.
As a result I got to know them. Dot let me store some large collected figs at the nursery as I didn't have space.
They just happened to be tucked away near the gate to Deborah's collection so I was able to see her collection a couple of times while we were both there.

One of the highlights for me was Deborah's ceramic work.
Deborah moved her studio down to the main house and I was lucky enough for her to let me see some of her pieces.

One that I still remember to this day was a dryad type figure.Tree roots and trunk lower part with a women's figure top half.Maybe about 22cm tall.