[Results announcement] Australian Native Bonsai Awards 2011

[Steven]

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The Australian Native Bonsai Awards 2011 have concluded, the judges scores have been compiled and the People’s Choice voting has taken place.

Last year when I was a judge I struggled to see the best in a bonsai that was not displayed particularly well. While overlooking the photography skills (or lack thereof), presentation did weigh heavily in my mind. To me, the bonsai photographed with stands, accents, non-distracting backgrounds or shadows, good lighting etc did present much better and therefore scored higher in the areas of 'image' and 'presentation'. They simply look better!
Again this year, although I wasn’t judging, I was disappointed with the presentation of some entries. I'd really like to emphasise how important the finishing touches are in providing the optimum viewing experience. While photography is not judged, it can greatly improve the presentation. If you feel you need some tips, please review our photographing bonsai section.

The Australian Native Bonsai Awards is an annual event so I encourage you all to start now in preparing yours for next year. If you don't yet have any Aussie natives in your collection, why not get some and start training them now for category 2 (less than 12 months in training).

Our Judges Pup, Tony Bebb and Lindsay Farr have graded the entries by point scoring based on Horticulture (very hard to judge from pictures), Artistic features (their individual opinion of the aesthetics) as well as design, total image and presentation (pretty much everything else to do with creating and showing bonsai). The combination of differing experiences, taste and ideals has hopefully created a pretty balanced and objective outcome. The scoring has been added together then averaged and we now have clear awardees in each category.

'Awardees, not winners?' you might ask. Everyone who entered is a 'winner' by helping to raise the profile of our art and awareness of the high quality native material we have to work with. There were however 3 in each category that stood out in the pictures and 'shined on the day'.

To recap the prizes, the awardees in each category will receive;

Category 1 -
Australian Native Bonsai Award
1st - Professional Grade set of Japanese made bonsai tools in a suede tool roll ($350.00 RRP) and certificate
2nd - Janet Selby limited edition AusBonsai.com bonsai pot and certificate
3rd - 42 Mice handmade bonsai pot and certificate

Category 2 -
New stock awards (Stock must be less than 12 months in training and isn't required to be in a bonsai pot)
1st - Custom made for your bonsai, a one of a kind Janet Selby bonsai pot and certificate
2nd - Janet Selby limited edition AusBonsai.com bonsai pot and certificate
3rd - 42 Mice handmade accent pot and certificate

Category 3 -
Newcomer encouragement award (For bonsaists with less than 1 year experience)
1st - Janet Selby limited edition AusBonsai.com bonsai pot and certificate
2nd - 42 Mice handmade accent pot and certificate
3rd – Certificate

I am extremely pleased and honoured to announce the awardees of this year’s Australian Native Bonsai Awards are. . .

Category 1 Australian Native Bonsai Award
1st Place: PeterH Banksia integrifolia

PeterH Banksia integrifolia.JPG

2nd Place: Paul Od, Melaleuca rhaphiophylla

Paul Od Melaleuca Rhaphiophylla.JPG

3rd Place: PeterH Eucalyptus nicholii 2

PeterH Eucalyptus nicholii.JPG

Category 2 New stock awards
1st Place: Alpineart, Australian Native Landscape

Alpineart Australian Native Landscape.JPG

2nd Place: Bretts, Casuarina torulosa

Bretts Casuarina torulosa.JPG

3rd Place: Alpineart, Eucalytus camaldulensis

Alpineart Eucalytus Camaldulensis.JPG

Category 3 Newcomer encouragement award
1st Place: Izzykay, Melaleuca s.

Izzykay Melaleuca.JPG

2nd Place: Khoa, Ficus benjamina

Khoa Ficus Benjamina.JPG

3rd Place: Deepeetee, Melaleuca linarifolia

Deepeetee Melaleuca linariifolia.JPG

This year, Category 1 submissions were also judged by the AusBonsai members for the People’s Choice award. The recipient of this award will receive a Tiny Tiny Display Table by jozaeh, an accent pot by MattA of 42 Mice and a certificate.
I am pleased to announce that the recipient of the People’s Choice award, with a majority vote of 17.93% goes to...

Ash for his Leptospermum polygalifolium Salisb.

Ash Leptospermum polygalifolium Salisb.JPG

I will be in touch with all awardees shortly to get details of where to send your goodies.

A big CONGRATULATIONS to the awardees in each category and to everyone who took the time to submit!

We have created a gallery of all submissions in category 1 which you can view HERE.

Thank you very much Tony, Lindsay and Pup for your time in judging the awards. I really appreciate your assistance guys!


Best regards,
Steven

[Craig]

CONGRATULATIONS and Well done to all the place getters in this years Comp, There were some great trees put up

Also a big thankyou to the 3 judges Lindsay Tony and Pup

[Pup]

I would like to congratulate all the awardees on their place getting. It certainly opened my eyes. Unfortunately some of the entries were just that entries. With no show, but participation is what it is all about.

Thank you, must go to Steven for putting up the prizes and keeping this going. As he has said start preparing your trees now, or buy one or collect one. For next year.

Cheers Pup.

Ps. one of my favorites did not make,any where ,so it so it shows that the judging is unbiased.

[Ash]

Congratulations to Peter and to Paul
Hats off to Peter for being one of the first people to post his wonderful trees for this years competition. Each of them is a delight to behold.
Also well done to alpine, bretts, Izzy, Kho and Deepeetee for showing us what can be achieved in a short time.
Thanks to the organisers, judges and donators of award prizes for the Australian Native Bonsai Awards 2011 and to Steven for getting all this going for us.
regards
Ash

[kcpoole]

Congratulations to all the Awaredees,
and a special Thnaks to the 3 Judges
Great work and thanks to you all

Special mention to Steven, who without his drive and ambition none of us will be here to enjoy these trees

Ken

[alpineart]

Congratulations to all who participated and to the winners and runner ups .A Special thank-you to Steven for the "Ausbonsai Forum" .Another special thank-you to the judges Pup , Lindsay and Tony . One things for sure , If you entered your a "WINNER" and if your a member your a "GRINNER" .Looking forward to 2012

Cheers and Happy Bonsai . Ian - Alpineart

[izzykay]

Thanks Steven and all the judges and everyone that participated. Was great fun to get involved

[LLK]

Congratulations to all the winners! I can't help singling out Peter H., because he is a fellow Canberran and I know him, and I know his great passion for his bonsai. A very quiet, reserved guy (pardon me, Peter, you really are!), you won't hear him talk very often, but his trees will talk for him!

Also, when it came to take part in naming my choice for the People's Choice Award, I was deeply impressed with the standard of the trees selected for the voting. In my opinion, every one deserved a prize. Well done, all!

Lisa

[sonic976]

everyone thanks for letting me in the comp ,all the best to everyone.sonic976

[Tony Bebb]

Congratulations goes out to all that participated in the Native Awards for 2011 and made our job so enjoyable and intensive.

Well done and congratulations to the award recipients and I hope you enjoy and make good use of your goodies.

Steven you must be commended for all your great work involved in these awards and with the Ausbonsai website. You and your crew have provided a fantastic opportunity to the Australian Bonsai community, and it is a pleasure to be involved.

With so many entries in all 3 categories the judging was certainly time consuming, but the process for me was very enjoyable. It was a privelege to be involved. There were many categories to the scoring process with Horticultural, Artistic/Aesthetic design and Image and Presentation sections. All things from taper of trunk to pot selections, ground covering to display quality and foliage proportion to ramification were given scores and these were compiled to give a final score. As such, as Steven mentioned earlier, whilst this is not a 'photographic' competition it would certainly have an impact on the final score.

My opinion in that this is a Bonsai competition, was that if it was not in a Bonsai pot, or suitable container, it could not score as highly in a number of categories, not the least aesthetic appearance. It was a pleasure to see that most of the entries were very neatly presented with at least reasonable to excellent backgrounds. This certainly makes the trees easier to view and present scores. The quality of the photos themselves was also of a high standard.

With the high quality of some of the entries I am personally a little surprised by some of the results, but this shows the versatility of the scoring process and the individual and unbiased views of the judging process. I invite you all to stay involved with Ausbonsai and to start thinking about and working on entries for next years awards.

Thankyou Steven for inviting me to be part of this process, and for continueing to push Australian Bonsai onwards and upwards. It was an honour and privelege. Well done everybody.

Tony

PS The Ausbonsai community share my favourite

[MattA]

Steven, thanks for once again running the awards. Its fantastic to see so many great ausiie natives being grown to such high standards. I will have to do alot of work of the coming 12mths to have a hope for next year.

Judges, thanks for your time & efforts to produce such an interesting selection of stunning trees. The percentage given for Peoples choice shows just how varied & tought your jobs must have been. Congratulations to all who entered & doubly so to the 'awardees'.

It was a great honour & priviledge to be able to enter a couple of trees. It would be really helpful if I knew how they scored and any comments regarding them... I would be happy to have it posted in the thread with my trees tho others may prefer not, then maybe via pm to individual entrants.

I think genuine constructive critique of our trees should be encouraged, especially once we have gained a reasonable command of the horticulture and basic principles, It can only help make us better growers & artists.

Matt

[Roger]

What a great competition. Well done to everyone who entered. It just shows the breadth of interest in this rapidly expanding field.

Well done awardees. Great trees all.

The judges again had a most challenging job and they acquitted themselves with honours.

Steven, an especial thanks to you and your team. You've all made bonsai, especially with Aust natives species, such an exciting place to be now.

Cheers
Roger

[Tony Bebb]

It was a great honour & priviledge to be able to enter a couple of trees. It would be really helpful if I knew how they scored and any comments regarding them... I would be happy to have it posted in the thread with my trees tho others may prefer not, then maybe via pm to individual entrants.

I think genuine constructive critique of our trees should be encouraged, especially once we have gained a reasonable command of the horticulture and basic principles, It can only help make us better growers & artists.

Matt

Hi Matt

I couldn't agree more that this would certainly be helpfull to entrants.
I would be more than happy to offer some constructive comments if you or anyone wishes. I have always used feedback from others to find ways of improving myself and my trees.

Best Regards

Tony

[boom64]

Congratulations to Steven,the judges and all involved.What a fantastic competition .Truely inspiring I am one who followed and hopefuly, no definetely will be a participant next year.
Regards John.

[PeterH]

I am honoured to receive these awards from the Aus Bonsai team and the quality judging panel. I am sure we all appreciate the time and effort involved in both the administration and the judging processes.

Thank you to all the other entrants and awardees for show casing an ever increasing quality and diversity of Australian native trees.

There are still quite a number of Australian artist out there with quality native Bonsai, and I hope they show off their trees on this site in the future.


Regards,

Peter