Australian Bonsai Style- Fire Swept

[Mitchell]

This topic has interested me for several years now. Not only does it interest me but it eternally nags at me, that given our vast and ultimately unique landscape, that we can not collectively create a international known styling.

Granted no other country has been able to achieve this, but since when have we been "any other country"??!?


So far, I have to give a great deal of credit to Shibui for the water swept styling, which I feel has great merit and I not utilized by fellow Australians enough. A style I know I and many other shall and will try to achieve.

Recently Fly has sparked my interest again, in the establishment of a charred/bush fire/regenerated styling, does the image of "new life/survival" create enough persona to build a style around it? I've included a pic from a recent post of his. Please note I have not yet spoken with and assume he intends to remove some of the charred/carbon material. "so I will be interested to see what kind of grain movement I have exposed."


I'm going to be so bold as to say, I believe as apposed to removing the charred section to expose the grain, it should be preserved as is. I can see this easily being done by-

Applying epoxy resin by dabbing it on with a brush.

Spraying it with acrylic clear topcoat spray, available at buzzing.

Using a thin mixture of PVA glue.




This also leads me to another question. I know we all try and use natives, we try because we should, we have great material here and it should be utilized.

It's one thing to try, but what does that achieve? Say we try and great 1000 great native Australia species bonsai... Fantastic. We have succeeded in creating 1000 great bonsai. kudos to us!
Where does it then leave us? With 1000 great bonsai which we can admire! This is nothing to be dismissed by itself. But what if not only we could create great bonsai, but we could dis-associate ourselves with generic styling and be unto our own unique requirements.




So I have done a few crazy things, since I have begun this hobby. This I believe to be one of the soundest moves, I hope I have convinced some other to jump on the band wagon.

I believe if we want to stand out as Something worth mentioning, let's do it now. Don't wait until you have to little years to try. Maybe this is not the way to go but at least I am taking something unique to us an running with it.

Whether it is water swept or fire swept, remember who and where you are, we live in Australian, not Japan, not Italy, create with what you have and remember where you come from.
50,000 years worth of history.... 50,000 years Have a think about that....... 300 year old Japanese trees. Doesn't sound so impressive does it? I know we don't have 300 year old trees in our hands right now, but it's not about that. It's about the history, the culture, the story, it's about the passion that is invoked within us and the spontaneous movements that we en dour upon what we are working in that moment, in that thought.


Note- If I had more advanced stock with branching I would do this too. Pup, anyone, name your price, I'll buy it and do them same...
Where's that blow torch...


Anyone else, got some stock spare, and game to help me with a cause? Burn it! BURN IT!!!



Edit before posting.... damn... can't find my blow torch... looks like we are gonna have a bon fire...
Don't worry i'll take pics..







Any thoughts on a fire swept styling or Australiana styling would be appreciated.

[tex048]

Hey,
having lived and worked in a national park I love the charactor of burnt out trees, and the growth that occurs after a fire.
I've wanted to try for so long but have not had the courage.
Will be keen to hear what others have to say.
Thanks for your thoughts mitchell

[Pup]

G,day Mitchell, I started burning our native's in 1988 at my firstpublic demonstration. The tree is still in my collection, in fact I posted it the other day
it is a Melaleuca golden gem. When I burnt it with a blowtorch,a Victorian woman asked why I did that. My answer was it is an Australian tree.

She was still not impressed and said it will never catch on. I still do it, I have said that we need to study the tree's that have been burnt.
You will see two levels of burn, the hard burn where the fire burns through to the heart wood and kills that part of the tree, the wood then becomes very hard.
Think of how the Aborigines make their weapons and tools. They use fire to straighten and harden the wood.
Then there is the soft burn that then allows the tree to regenerate, these are tools we can use in creating the bush effect on our tree's.
So yes I believe we can use fire with our tree's.

Do not the big B sell them Mitchell blowtorches I mean.

Cheers Pup

[Jamie]

hi guys

intersting topic! recently I have been thinking about the use of natives as bonsai and australian style, in that I have been thinking about it all, how it is and why we compare our trees to other countries. it got me thinking, ok, how come the japanese have trees like they do, and why.
what makes anything different?

I beleive there are a few things. firstly is the knowledge that they have. to take this into consideration, the japanese and chinese have been growing bonsai and penjing for roughly 2000 years. in that time they have passed down knowledge, techniques, skills and trees from generation to generation. now some may say that this is why their trees are like the way they are. sure it is, now lets looks at the rest of the world. It was said recently that australians have had minimal exposure to bonsai, to be honest it is pretty much the same for the rest of the world. bonsai has only really been exposed to the rest of the world for the past 100 years or so since being shown at the world trade fair, and even then didnt get a great deal of attention. it wasnt really until 50-70 years ago that bonsai really took of around the world, in America a lot of trees were brought home from the war which spurred some what Of a big interest, but before that it was mostly the japanese and chinese (possible some of the other eastern countries) that practiced this fine art first, whether it was in their home country or if they had immigrated.
So, now Australia is basically on par with the approximate time bonsai has been such a well known hobby/art/lifestyle where do we stand. I beleive considering that bonsai is only a young art/hobby/lifestyle to us and most of the world, I beleive we are on the right track and growing incredibly well. we have experienced and new alike, the Australian bonsai community is growing exceptionally well, we have how many clubs and groups around the country and thats not to mention those that arent part of a club or group. we get international bonsai teachers from around the globe that come here and teach those that are lucky enough to be able to go to work shops, demos, lectures etc, and in turn we do just as the japanese/chinese have and pass on the information, skills and techniques we learn from these events. We cant forget one of the most valuable resources in the world that connects us not only with each other but everyone in the world, the internet, which is a growing super mass of information and help. I wouldnt be where I am today if I didnt have the net, in the past year of being online here I have learnt more than I did the previous 4 or so years with books and learning from my mistakes. not to say that books arent a valuable resource either, they are one of the best things to go a reference from.
So, we dont have the 2000 odd years of knowledge (maybe secret techniques?? ) passed down from generation to generation like the japanese/chinese but we have been able to learn a lot of these plus new techniques from demonstrators, international or local, because we do have local members of the community that could be considered quite highly in regards to their skills and knowledge and are just as good as some of the world wide teachers.
this brings me to my next point, ok so we dont have 300 year old shimpaku, or 600 year old pine, thats not to say we dont have trees of this age in our country. but I beleive the japanese/chinese have the sort of trees they do because they use there natives that are readily available to them, and have been propagating them for a long time. so our nurseries dont have super old trees, I will tell ya though, our land has, it just has to be found and also considerations have to be taken with this, these old trees that are in japan that are left in nature are highly protected, and so should ours be which most I beleive are, but there are trees out there that have age, gnarliness and other features that are what we are after, there are so many that I see here on this site alone that have been collected that could in time compete with some of those age old trees in japan/china.

so, really there isnt any excuse saying that we are young in bonsai as most of the world is aswell, but we have been lucky enough to get tought a lot from roaming artists and local. whether you have been in bonsai for 5 minutes or 50 years there is still always something to learn and a smart person will always keep an open mind and learn. I beleive our native trees can be used extremely successful as bonsai and there are artists that have proven this, on this site. there are native species that can contend with the classic species like the JBP, maples, elms and juniper/shimpaku, it is just a matter of learning the trees, working with there strengths and working around there weaknesses.
I have been getting into natives more and more, and intend on really getting to understand them, the likes of Flybri with Eucs (just as an example, first one to pop into my mind as this is where the topic came up) and others are paving the way for the use of our natives and with the likes of the koreshoffs that really pioneered the use of natives in the very early days of Australian bonsai history.

an "Australian style" is already there, its already being done, what is an Australian style, well thats a topic that is a little controversial. but how different is it to any other "style". the basis of styles are all based on trees one way or another, a broom style tree is all over the world, in all different species of trees. same as the rest of the so called classical "japanese style" trees. is it important to define a style of a certain country? or will the trees grow in what there conditions suit, the only differences being the species? as trees in similar conditions in two different locations across the world, will grow in similar fashions in one way or another.

sorry bout the epic but I feel it is something that has to do with this topic as we do have the potential and everything else to boot, to have trees just as good as our over seas counter parts. I think it is up to the artist to be able to turn these canvases into the great art works we see and envy

maybe went a little off topic, but has been on my mind all night..

jamie

[Rowdy]

I have been led to beleave the weakness with australian natives are there age, they tend to die after 30 or 40 years, about the time thsy should be starting to really get good. I am sure native figs would be an exception, but i have know idea about what else has all the characteristics of a good bonsai tree, and will live long enough for me to pass down to someone.
I like the idea of fire styled trees though, that is definatly an australian trait that i dout anywhere else in the world could replicate.

[Pup]

Rowdy, the assumption that our trees are not long lived, is perpetuated by the people that have not and will not try them. There are tree's in the National collection that are older than 60 years.
I have some in my collection, going on the age old ring count method, that are 101+years old. There are many of the so called exotics, that have died after they were created. Simply because the proper care was not given. So any tree that is not cared for properly will die, Australian native or exotic.

Even ficus will die if you do not give it the right treatment.

Cheers Pup

[Mitchell]

Sorry, been busy the last couple of days. Should be free tonight, to add more of my thoughts. Thanks for the explanation Pup, it is all very interesting. Not off topic Jamie, read briefly, will re-read tonight.

[Mitchell]

A few images to contemplate.

It is striking just how many (1000's) of shots were uploaded by people of the vic fires. It also amazes me, they have not been collected to one place for historical value.
I may at some stage try and create a youtube vid of all the shots.

[Allan]

Now I know what I can do with all the tree's I kill

I thought you may be able to use a black tar spray on wound sealer to create an effect like this rather than burn the tree. Over time it gradually breaks up, much like the charred bark on trees in bush fires.

[Istari]

Australia, It just doesnt come any more beautiful.

[bonzaidog]

Hi Mitchell....Interesting subject.....here are a couple of snaps of a Mel.,just north of Perth we stumbled upon whilst out looking for new "projects"....The tree ,which seems to be of a fair age,shows what Pup is saying about hard burn and soft burn and may be a source of inspiration for those who wish to head down this path. ....Dog.

[Lynette]

I really like the thought of a fire damaged tree, as we see them al the time in native bush, expecially large old trees that have had a hole formed from the burning throught of the tree. My problem is getting a trunk that I feel is big enough to make this type of form. Have to keep growing. I think I remember somewhere a few years back when somebody was defoliating natives by burning before repotting and using this as a regrowth mechanism. I can't rember where I saw or heard it.
LYnette

[Mitchell]

Awesome shots Dog!

Set fire to a flowering gum last night. I hope it doesn't re-shoot from the root stock, probably will knowing my luck.

Lynette, I have been looking at hundreds of shots of bush aftermath etc/regeneration. It amazing how when many natives trunks get burnt they re-shoot from the burnt areas. Amazing. What other species of plant in world, can you flame, then have them back bud right down the trunk?

[Mitchell]

Some more shots.

[Matt Jermy]

Personally - I think this is a great sub-section of Aus-Bonsai to evolve through both experience,
conversation and practice... and practice ... and .....

Being a 'Taswegian' raised, I have a penchant for Huon's (pines). They grow fast in the first few
years of growth and have a wonderful green weeping foliage. Have killed one of my three under
perspex in mid-summer ....
- They also live VERY long time - there is a 'fallen', (trunk 'rooted'), 4000 yr old Huon on west coast ..

Having said that - I'll try my hand at any native, though have discovered that whilst generally hardy, a lot
don't like having their roots disturbed too often, if at all ....

B#@$%ngs u say for that blowtorch..?