AusBonsai

More than a decade has passed since The worlds first English language full TV series dedicated to bonsai was produced. Whilst I'm proud of that achievement I'm somewhat dismayed that no other such series has emerged.
I'm challenging the new generation of Australian bonsai people to do more to further the joy's of our art.

Clearly, television views bonsai as a 3 minute occasional segment with a gushy presenter and an often bland official guest
I would love to see a young person with a generous, creative spirit and fearless soul realize the next generation of mass media access to bonsai.

Please step forward and spread the joy of bonsai.

[quote="lindsay farr"]More than a decade has passed since The worlds first English language full TV series dedicated to bonsai was produced. Whilst I'm proud of that achievement I'm somewhat dismayed that no other such series has emerged.
I'm challenging the new generation of Australian bonsai people to do more to further the joy's of our art.

That was a 'must see' back then and a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon. The Lifestyle Channel is probably the only one who would present such a milestone as 'The Way Of Bonsai'. I couldn't see the commercial channels pick up anything like what you presented. You're a one off Lindsay, nobody does this better than you. Perhaps you should have another crack at a new series.

Clearly, television views bonsai as a 3 minute occasional segment with a gushy presenter and an often bland official guest

The last segment you did was not bland. lol But I agree the commercials pay lip service to bonsai.

Not sure if he still does, but Peter Chan used to do regular presentations on one of the BBC chanels in the UK. They even sent a truck to pick up the trees.

Would be nice for aunty to do a proper segment would it not. Not like the last one.

Cheers Pup

Pick me, Pick me!!!

If I had the opportunity, I would love to be in on something like that.

I think that the internet would be a better medium though, as it reaches more people and costs less to "air". I think Lindsay is right on the money with his edited versions of W.O.B online which is enough to leave viewers wanting more, and then they fork out their money for a DVD version, which I think is a better way as you can pause, rewind etc at your own leisure.

Your certainly a smart man Lindsay

I admire your vids Lyndsay, you introduced me to Penjing which has become an obsession.

Wish I could help.

I will gladly put my hand up for the task
it wouldn't/won't be for a couple more years yet though. When I have everything set up though, it will be something I would love to get happening!
A TV series, among other things

I would love to, but not sure if I could pronounce those words like Lindsay though.

Mick

gday Lindsay
all i do is sit home 24/7 due to back problem and looking at this post i thought i would say it would be a perfect thing to do
video's on bonsai i did see in one episode of gardening Australia about bonsai and was rather disappointed with the amount of
time it had taken if you blinked 5 times it was finished which to me is just no good,i am waiting for a show for 1 hour on bonsai
and then a series of shows for 30 minutes per episode which i think would be excellent to watch.
cheers dean

i would love to but being a novice im still learning alot so i dont knwo if i qualify lol

Hey Lindsay,

Great idea & I would love to see it happen... however..... given recent events within the local bonsai scene it would need the support of someone like yourself to make it happen otherwise I feel it would be stomped the way only us Aussies know how... tall poppy....CUT...

Matt

I agree that the web is the best way to communicate bonsai video to our global community.

Television is still the best platform to further grow the community.

The video magazine format that we used for the foxtel series is outdated and unlikely to find an audience.

A bit of outside the box creativity is called for.

I think it is possible. Think about ie.

im up for it
i really love bonsai with a flaming passion and id really like to take it further as a profession if it were possible in the future. id even love to travel to japan and do a full apprenticeship there if i ever got the opportunity. in saying that i would make it my goal to spread the knowledge of bonsai so that everyone in the bonsai community could learn bonsai better. i would really love to see the Australian bonsai scene reach a new level and a higher degree of quality than there already is. i would say this is my goal for bonsai in my eyes. to bring this about, like we have been talking about could be another video tv series. it would be great to have this available as i know how much i love to watch anything bonsai related on the net (and then watch it over and over again). Its alot easier to create this sort of thing in even better quality now a days so i would love to see it done. i personally have thought about creating a bonsai series myself one day when i have the knowledge, equipment and video source to do. it would be great to see bonsai as a highly recognised art and be something that is highly distinguishable in the arts.

Hugh

Thanks for bringing up the topic Lindsey, I think it can generate some healthy debate. I was drawn by the title of the thread, and I thought it would be an appropriate forum to address an issue on my mind of late regarding the next generation of bonsai practitioners.

Let me lead the discussion to the side for a moment. I like the idea of a TV series, and have found your shows to be both inspiring and educational. But in my opinion, the main focus of the new generation of bonsai practitioners should be to raise the standard of Australian bonsai across the board, to catch up to the great leaps that Europe and North America have experienced over the last few years in the field of bonsai. If you have been following the international scene you will have noticed a young generation of artists emerge. Young people producing astounding quality bonsai in very short time. I have asked myself what is the difference between what I see happening overseas, and what I see happening in the scene here in Australia. In my opinion it is the focus on quality raw material. I believe it is the key to progress.

Being a bonsai forum/blog fiend for several years now, I am often scouring the internet for bonsai inspiration. I have been truly impressed by some of the progress that has happened by following some European artists, and seeing the quality of young bonsai practitioners emerging from the States and Europe. In a very short amount of time they have been producing incredible bonsai. One lesson that I have learnt and realised is that bonsai does not need to be a painstakingly long process which only bears fruit from the efforts put in over 10 year +. This is a misconception that haunts people getting into the hobby, very often scares people off, and/or leaves them disinterested very quickly. For people to feel like they can access this great hobby, they must realize that great bonsai are an attainable reality. That they too can possess and create inspiring trees.

I would like to quote Walter Pall, which I took from a profile of one of his trees on his website, a Japanese maple raised from nursery material over the period of 25 years. Walter writes

“The aim is to present a bonsai in the end that looks like it grew like this by itslelf. Mother nature did it - this is what the viewer should believe. But this is not reached by letting mother nature work. It is reached by working mostly against the wish of mother nature and partially with it. On this particular maple in the end nothing grew by itself. Every single bit is made. But one can only work with what one has. If the material is lousy the result will most probably not be good. Or it will take extremely long. The maple in question could have been made from much better material in maybe five years. Or in the same time a world class tree could have been made from better material. This is what I am trying to get through here.”

He concludes by saying “DON'T WASTE 25 YEARS! DO NOT REPEAT WHAT I DID HERE! GO FROM MUCH BETTER QUALITY AT THE OUTSET. BONSAI IS NOT THE ART TO FIND VERY INEXPENSIVE MATERIAL AND MAKE A MASTERPIECE FROM IT!”

Walter may be straight in his wording, but I think it is a valuable lesson. To raise the overall quality of bonsai, we must raise the quality of the raw material, and this is not a lesson learnt in a book or a classroom about Bonsai rules of styling, it is in a lesson of where and how to find incredible raw material, how to retrieve it, then how to turn it into inspiring bonsai which is WORLD CLASS. I think this is a key lesson which must be taught, and embraced to progress.

Creating incredible bonsai does not have to be a long process. If we look at a couple from Croatia who have recently emerged as fantastic artists and collectors, Marija Hajdic & Andrija Zokic of the anima bonsai blog (http://www.animabonsai.com/ ). This is a pair who have fully embraced this lesson, and in a few years have produced award winning, world class bonsai. Take for instance their Pistacia lentiscus which was awarded an award for native tree in natural style at the Bonsai Autumn 7 exhibition in Switzerland this year. This tree was trained only 2 years! How did they do it?! They chose exceptional raw material to start with. Please see the progress of the tree here (http://www.animabonsai.com/pistacia-len ... ic-tree-2/ ). But looking through the gallery of bonsai on their site, one will see that the standard of their trees is exceptional, and that they are excelling by only using great raw material. But what is most astounding is that they are taking native species and creating their own style, and in the process creating a national profile for the species and the artists. We can do the same!

If we look at the variety of material available on our doorstep yet to be explored thoroughly. Callitris, Athrotaxis, Casuarina, Callistimon, Melaleuca the list goes on! We need not look far for inspiring natural setting for inspiration. It is everywhere. And so is the material! We must embrace our local plant species and make use of them, and show the world that Australia shines on a world scale.

We must respect the roots of bonsai and the traditional teachings, but the only way forward is to step up, and dig! Too often I am frustrated by the nursery material that so many people are using to create bonsai. Having started myself through this type of material, I do not blame them, because it is an accessible way to access the hobby, but will leave you unsatisfied, and disinterested very quickly. Every now and then one may find something neat, but we need game changers. This is partly due to traditional teachings of bonsai, and the lack of focus on material to start with.

We need to stress that bonsai of great quality is attainable in short time, by using the right material to start with in the first place. Also we need to stress that Australian species have fantastic bonsai potential, and I admire the efforts gone to by this forum particularly in spreading this message. To lift the standard here we need the same quality of material found at current European and American exhibitions. One is astounded at the quality of trees displayed at the Neolanders and such events. But one thing is for sure, they weren’t grown from a straight piece of nursery material.

We need a generation of diggers. People keen to get out there, put in the hours, get their hands dirty and source the material that is going to lift Australia into the scene. There are inspiring artists and collectors amongst us, but we need to step up and lift Australia like others have lifted the States and Europe, like the Ryan Neils, the Andrija and Marijas etc.

So I put it forward to you, let’s show the world that Australia can compete on the world stage.

nguzowski I applaud your sentiments, as well as saying my digging days are over as age creeps up as well as health issues.

I have for years expounded our natives species as Bonsai material, and have received a lot of adverse comments. I still persevere and improve the trees that I have collected over 17 years some I have sold as they have become to large for me to handle.

We do not have access to the fantastic mountain grown Pines and Junipers of the northern hemisphere that people covert. Just recently they stopped allowing the import of trees into the USA, it is still allowed into Europe, so a lot of the larger trees from Japan Taiwan, and Korea are getting into these countries.
Along with Japanese Tutors which we do not have access to, so yes they have moved in leaps and bounds. Also getting apprenticed to a Japanese Sensei is not that easy or cheap.
We have to rely on our own, which I have seen and some are quite capable of teaching here, if they were allowed to.
However put a Japanese teacher next to an Australian teacher, and see who books who.
I will also say get with Australian Bonsai as we do have very good material in our Natives.
Like all species the finer points have to be learned. As with the Kato family and the Cryptomeria, they just kept trying till it became a very good material to use for Bonsai.
Just my sentiments and applause to you, now if only the younger generation takes it on board.

Cheers Pup

Thanks Pup.

I do appreciate the effort people like yourselves have put into the art in Australia. It was through finding people like yourself and others online, Lindsey, Brian Inglis to mention in particular (unfortunately his website is long down), that I found inspiration in the Australian scene, and people working with Australian native species (and others that are readily available here). It widened my view of the art and showed me that we are not limited to the species we see in the textbooks like the chinese junipers and japanese maples. It was through the medium of the internet that I had access to these people and their trees. I think it is an ideal medium for people sharing this art, and also learning.

This is true that we do not have access to mountain species like the grande pines, conifers and junipers of the European and American landscape. But I believe that there are still species waiting to be fully explored here in Australia. Obviously our geographical boundaries limit us. But I have yet to see anyone collecting or shaping the beautiful athrotaxis (pencil and king billy pine), which I believe has similarities to the rocky mountain and sierra junipers that are being collected in the States if we look at the specimins growing in areas such as Mt Field in Tassie. Obviously this is a species that is found in the mountain landscape of Tasmania, so many of us do not have access, or do not go to the efforts to retrieve these beauties (also the fact that they are under protection I believe?). Another native conifer that I have seen few examples of is the Callitris. This is a beautiful Australian conifer that has similarities to the hinoki cypress which I believe also has great potential. They are just waiting to be explored and used. There are an endless number of species out there. Not only conifers. Broadleaf trees I find just as breathtaking. Look at what the south east asian nations have done with the pemphis. If we look to what the Europeans have done with the oriental hornbeam in the last 5 years. This is only a recent discovery in the European bonsai scene. Not to mention the snow gum? I have a number of collected unknown native broadleaf trees which react very well to shaping, are fast growers, and I am sure will find a place in the scene here.

Having said this, mountain landscapes are not the only material rich areas. Some of my best material have come from rock shelf laden fresh water river banks where the trees have been constantly knocked over and contorted by flood and wind. These have similar effects to the trees as the snow and wind of the mountains. We too have material rich areas full of potential masterpieces, waiting to be discovered. Areas where nature has tested trees for survival through hard growing conditions. Rock shelves, river banks, mountain sides, etc. But it takes people going to the effort of finding the areas, finding the trees, collecting and training them. Much can be taken from the stories of pioneers in the American and European scenes such as Dan Robinson and Walter Pall, who often cross vast land masses to get their material. Randy Knight in the states also.

Having said this, progressive styling and shaping techniques have given us the oppportunity to make something from nothing. Power carving tools in the right hands can make a sub-standard raw tree into an impressive specimine in a short amount of time. I know I have learnt much from watching videos of the pros such as Kevin Wilson and Graham Potter (these videos are all readily available on youtube), and having a go myself on a forgiving tree I have dug out locally like a privet. Some of these local yamadori are also great material. You do not have to travel far to find these. Garden hedges etc. But these are important techniques that do aid the practitioner a great deal in creating fine trees. And the emerging naturalistic style of shaping? Opposed to the Naka style we see in the books. But that is a another issue in itself...

Sorry if I have gone on a rant, but I think these are important issues that must be covered on the issue of progressing the art here in Australia. Widening our view, and embracing what we learn from people who have done it very well, and not limiting this to what we see in the traditional texts in terms of species, shaping, techniques.