Craig Ws Banksia integrifolia at the NBPCA

[Craig]

Hi all,

Here are some shots taken of the Banksia integrifolia that belongs to Craig W. It is on loan to the collection for a year.

It was started by a Victorian artist by the name of Ian Edwards. Does any one have any specific knowledge of this artist?

Ian Edwards owned it for 20 years and Craig has now had it for 15 years. It is a lovely BIG bonsai.

Victorian Banksia integrifolia on display..JPG

Against Black Background.JPG

Against Green Background.JPG

We will get some more background colors and possibly some roll up and down blinds to make it easier to change backgrounds and to make it easier to photograph the trees in the narrow garage/studio.

Grant Bowie

[teejay]

Great Banksia!

Is Mr Craig Ws a Victorian???

[NBPCA]

Great Banksia!

Is Mr Craig Ws a Victorian???

I put the photos on with his collaboration.

I hope Craig will be on line at some point and can answer any questions of that sort.

Cheers

Grant

[Mojo Moyogi]

Beautiful Banksia from Craig, I much prefer the look of Integrifolia to Serrata. Serrata is a bit too clunky for mine.

Cheers
MM

[Mojo Moyogi]

Yep, Victorian

MM

[Grant Bowie]

Beautiful Banksia from Craig, I much prefer the look of Integrifolia to Serrata. Serrata is a bit too clunky for mine.

Cheers
MM

Integrifolia is my personal favorite but if you want flowers on your Banksia you will have to use another.

Serrata flowers well as a bonsai and I have seen Marginata in flower as well.

Grant

[Jarrod]

Lovely tree. Your going to need a bigger garage to photograph alot of these trees. Keep the pics coming. I, and I'm sure alot of people here, are loving seeing what's going on up in Canberra wen we can't get there our selves.

[dayne]

great tree actualy amazing tree i feel it needs a better pot though may b a cracked effect pk

[Leigh Taafe]

Definately one of my favourites in the collection, just need to convince the right person about changing the pot!


Love it!

[Greth]

I think the pot is a little bit too fussy, distracts a bit from the tree detail, but a lovely tree, shows up best on the black background.

[anttal63]

Yep this guy has some nice natives! Craig is another guy who is very generous with his time and knowledge. Definately need to lose that pot.

[craigw60]

Thanks for the complements guys I feel that my good friend Ian (Now deceased ) should get lots of praise as he did the original styling. I am well aware of the problems with the pot but it was the biggest one in the shed at the time and good quality pots of that size are not cheap. When I first got the tree 15 years ago there was no cracking in the bark at all that has really only happened in the last 8-10 years.

[lindsay farr]

I've been researching Ian Edwards and preparing a short video about him.
Ian began bonsai whilst living in stables at Clifford Hockings house.
Cliff Hocking was a leading entrepreneur of the arts for decades.He bought people like Ravi Shankar, Arilio Diaz, Paco Pena,Cleo Laine to our shores. Hocking produced The first Barry Humphries one man show " a nice nights entertainment" was presented by Hocking.
Ian Edwards lived in a creative world full of possibility at a time when Australian culture was somewhat constrained and bland.

I recently did a restyle on a fig that Ian had collected from cracks in the brickwork of Princess Bridge. When he moved on from Cliff's place he lived in a small house in Richmond. The Sun was scarce so he spent his days moving his bonsai to a brighter spot.

During the early eighties Melbourne bonsai Patriach Max Leversha described Ian Edwards as one of the finest Aussie bonsai artists.

Ian worked for the forest commission for many years and rebuffed his friends suggestions that he take a commercial approach to bonsai.

When he left Richmond he moved to Seaford and disposed of his collection.

He was also involved in the famous Naked penguin literary hoax in the fifties.

A very interesting person who I wish I had known better

Cheers
Lindsay

[craigw60]

Hi Lindsay,
Ian was a really close friend of mine and I have quite a lot of his trees some where given to me and some I bought from him. He was also an incredible artist. I feel that if he had persisted with his paintings he would have been one of Australia's great artists. I have no idea what happened to his paintings but I would guess his brother or nephew has them. He had many artistic friends who in their time would probably be considered bohemian. He was a fairly grumpy fellow and put a lot of peoples noses out of joint with his very frank assesments of their trees. Ians favourites were his cedars of which he had many. I had 3 of his cedars here and they are certainly well designed trees.

[NBPCA]

Thank you Lindsay and Craig for your information about Ian. I tried to track down an exact date of birth and death for him. Marge and Geoff thought he died about 5 years ago. Any clues?

We have certainly lost a lot of great names from the past in the last 20 years or so. It is great to see the trees living on and in the hands of experienced bonsai growers and lovers.

Grant Bowie