Asian section, The State Gallery of New South Wales

Today, I took my daughter to the State Gallery of New South Wales. I always enjoy visiting it, but this time the Asian section had a couple of things related to bonsai. The entrance of the section was marked by a large Chinese viewing stone from lake Taihu. I am used to seeing such stones in Chinese gardens, but seeing it in a sterile setting of a gallery surrounded by lots of negative space gave it a very contemporary air (see the image below).

Another exhibit that drew my attention was a beautiful flower bulb bowl. It was about 30 cm in diameter and even had couple of drainage holes (see images below). This simple, but elegant porcelain ware with a blueish celadon glaze was produced in Jingdezhen during Yongzheng period of Qing dynasty (1723-35).

I would like to finish this post with something not related to bonsai. Some 19th century Japanese tsubas. All inspired by nature (images below).

Demonstrations by Peter Adams, Sydney 2011

Last weekend, I attended a couple of bonsai demonstrations by Peter Adams from America. He is great at painting bonsai trees and sketching different design options for trees. He has an acute artistic sense and a refined taste for bonsai and bonsai pots. He is trained as a professional artist and his abilities would be rather common in the artistic circles. However, they are rather rare in the bonsai community and he takes full advantage of it. Below, are Peter’s drawings of three different design options for a particular tree.  

He can be a harsh critic of something when he speaks in generalities and at the same time hypocritically mellow in his opinions when it comes to specifics. For example, he would look at a mediocre tree and say it is wonderful not to offend the owner. I know that they call it good people skills, but it made some people in the audience think that mediocre trees are wonderful.

He had a career of growing bonsai, which allowed him to accumulate a wealth of horticultural knowledge. Sharing it with the audience was good learning.

The organisers of these demonstrations provided him with the world class bonsai material, however a tree with a tremendous potential is not always the best candidate for a spectacular demonstration. Therefore, there were no amazing transformations. Below, are the before and after pictures of the tree, which is the subject of the three design options drawings shown above.

Peter Adams also showed us some photos of his bonsai collection in the US and I was a bit disappointed. The trees were decent, but none of them had the ‘wow’ factor.

Overall, I did learn quite a few things and it was well worth it.

For a blog post about Peter Adams' demonstration in Sydney in 2009 go to: http://lomov.blogspot.com.au/2009/07/peter-adams-workshop.html