Tree Art
Bonsai Gardening - Introduction to a Living Art
The first thing that comes to mind when you say the word art is sculptures and painting. However, there is One Kind of sculpture that is very popular but does not make use of wood and stone, but its own materials, which is known as bonsai.
Bonsai, derived from a Japanese word meaning 'tree in a tray', is an art that creates miniature bushes and trees. Through careful pruning and years of shaping and patience, the masterpieces are created by using ordinary specifics and creating bonsai.
It is not an art that just anyone can do; it takes a lot of care and patience, to create healthy plants. These are actual plants from ordinary species, such as maple or pine, which are shaped and grown in a small pot.
The artist has to control the perfect temperature and soil type to succeed. They must also possess the right temperament and techniques to perfectly prune the bonsai. There are many various ways of performing the art and it takes a great deal of practice in potting and repotting to attain the results.
The art of bonsai is an exact science right down to the watering of the bushes and trees. If you water the plant too much you will have a plant that becomes water logged and will likely develop root rot and fungi. With too little water, you will find the soil dries very quickly, eventually drying the leaves and killing the tree.
Every aspect of the art interacts with other aspects. For example, potting and soil practices depend on pruning and shaping techniques used, as well as drainage of the trees and bushes.
When it comes to art, bonsai is one of the hardest types to create. This is because all of the above elements, plus others has to be nearly perfect in order for the bushes and trees to survive. However, that is not all; this art also requires implementing pleasing colors, shapes, and styles in both the areas of the pot and plant to appeal to buyers.
When it comes to bonsai, there are 5 basic styles. These are known as semi-cascade, cascade, slanting, informal upright, and formal upright. While these are the basics, there are many advanced styles as well; one of which is called literati.
You could not learn and master this art in the time frame of a month.
Many artists work on one product for several years to create one tree. However, this tree may last more than one hundred years. Because of their longevity, these trees are generally passed from one generation to another, with each passing generating adding their own style to the tree.
The art and mastery of bonsai takes years of experience and training. It is not easy to create miniature bushes and trees from an ordinary species, just as it is not easy to create an ordinary species as it is.
Many people enjoy bonsai because it is handcrafted and takes us back to a time when technology was not an intrusion. Mass production was not available, neither were cell phones, hi-fi televisions, or high priced automobiles. It takes us back to a simpler time, when everything was just.
About the Author
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Gardening and Bonsai Tree
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Bonsai Trees - Small Wonders
Bonsai, as everybody knows, is an Eastern practice of miniaturizing trees and plants in a container. A Japanese word, the term 'bonsai' means tray gardening. Research has it, that 'bonsai' has its predecessor in the Chinese 'penjing'. The Korean craft of 'bunjae', also shares a remarkable likeliness.
Ancient China is said to be the birth place of this miniaturization activity. Like martial arts, the origin of this miniaturizing trait, too had a need that had to be met. The martial arts evolved as a necessary instrument of self-defense, required for the monks on their long and hazardous missions of propagating peace. Similarly, it is said, that this art came into being as it was seen as the best way to transport medicinal plants over a long distance.
The Chinese Tang dynasty is supposed to have encouraged this activity. In fact, it is also seen that cultural emissaries from this period had visited Japan and introduced this wonderful art.
The Chinese 'penjing' is highly influenced by the tenets of Taoism. The Chinese thought of the bifurcation of the world energy into two different forces, the yin and the yang forms the aesthetic ideal of the 'penjing' artist. In China, the creative value of 'penjing' is the same as that of calligraphy, poetry, Garden Art and Brush Painting.
The Japanese 'bonsai', naturally, has evolved with a slightly different perspective. The Japanese see the 'bonsai' as the manifestation of 'heaven and earth in one container'. Shin-zen-bi or truth, essence and beauty are the three things that form a Japanese bonsai.
Pine, maple, elm, flowering apricot, Japanese wisteria, juniper, flowering cherry, azalea and larch are common Japanese subjects for bonsai-making. The Japanese School lays special emphasis on being natural. The trees have to be life-like without betraying the sign of human effort that had gone behind its making.
Over the years, a lot of style has developed as far as the art of bonsai-making is concerned. However, formal upright, informal upright, cascade, semi-cascade, raft, literati, and group-forest are the most common styles.
The formal upright version comprises a tapering trunk and layered branches. The informal upright style has the tree positioned just the way as it is done in a formal upright style. However, it is dubbed as 'informal' as it allows for an occasional bend or a curve.
Waterside trees or those that are found on mountains are stylized in the cascade and the semi-cascade style. Cascades fall below the base of the container whereas semi-cascades lean over the rim.
Raft-style bonsai are well-known for mimicking the natural phenomenon. Raft bonsai, specializes in keeping the original root-system intact and in touch with the soil. The Literati style is characterized by a small number of branches placed higher up on a long, contorted trunk. Technically speaking, the literati style is a complicated style to follow.
A group or forest bonsai is a number of trees, placed together in a container.
About the Author
Jason Uvios writes about on Bonsai Trees - Small Wonders to visit :-
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