Bonsai Gallery of Walter Pall: Scots Pine nr. 4

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Scots Pine (Pinus sylvestris) #4

85 cm high, 40 cm wide
About 100 years old
Pot by Peter Krebs
From a tree which was collected in Italy in 1998

Valerio Genotti has collected this pine in the Susa valley in Italy in 2000. It was well established in a box when I acquired it in the fall of 2004. It enthused me by this sharp bent. I know that I could enhance it. And so I did as one can see. This is certainly not finished, but it will be a most elegant pine. Scots pines cannot just be wired and bent, left alone for a year, taking wire off and here we are. The branches will dangle down like a weeping willow. One has to do this several times and the branches will still have a tendency to dangle down after the wire is removed. So I suggest a more natural shape anyway. This makes life easier for the tree and the artist. And it is more interesting then just another boring bonsai look alike.
The styling of this tree started a long discussion or rather ferocious fight on the internet about tree-dimensional or 360degree styling. Will Heath wrote several pieces about this. Part of the styling was featured in Bonsai Today subsequently. My idea was that I wanted to style a convincing TREE and not a BONSAI. A tree must look credible from all sides. It will have several good sides. I may like one the best, but it can be more than one. So the artist has to offer several sides and the viewer has to find his best. It may be the same that the artist chose, but it does not have to. I think this was achieved with this tree. To me this is a most normal train of thought. But the fight on the internet was almost kind of scary at some points. Fundametalists against avant guarde artists.
So why three-dimensional styling? Well, bonsai used to be made for the sole purpose to be shown in a tokonoma as sort of a statue of a saint in a Buddhist house altar. They were supposed to be seen from one side only against a plain background. Bonsai were styled two-dimensionally by and large or frequently at least. But really nowadays bonsai will almost never be exhibited like this. Normally the overwhelming majority will be shown in a garden and be seen from many sides. So they should look good from all sides if possible. And in addition the concept is that they are little trees appearing like big ones and NOT appearing like bonsai. It's that simple and that controversial.