I went to the Guangzhou Penjing (Bonsai) Exhibition in Martyrs’ Park yesterday. With over 350 lingnan penjing (southern style Chinese bonsai), it’s the biggest lingnan penjing exhibition since the founding of the country.
A truly A+ penjing should look just as exquisite when it is naked of leaves, as the times when it is blooming vigorously with leaves and flowers.
“Penjing” in Chinese literally means “landscape in a pot”. Their art is more of reproducing a miniature landscape than creating a perfect tree as the Japanese are doing with their bonsai.
This penjing style is called cascade. It represents a tree that has been growing in very difficult circumstances, perhaps out of the side of a rock face or in a similarly severe habitat.
This penjing is one of my favorites in the exhibition. Its title is “大風驚濤”, literally means “harsh wind severe waves”.
Just want to show the size and scale of the bonsai tree 🙂
10 replies on “Guangzhou Penjing (Bonsai) Exhibition”
Sandy, agree with you on the harsh wind style tree you took at the Guangzhou exhibit.
it really a favorite of mine too. have seen this concept in forest plantings and think they stand
out as some of the best in that you can “feel” the movement of the tree.
A hui ho !! Randy
Windswept, one of my favorite style.
I would love to start getting into these types of landscapes. I can’t put into words how amazing I think they are. With that said, I live in the US and was wondering if there is anywhere that I can get the type of rocks that are shown in some of the landscapes in these photos. I have searched on the web and can’t seem to find anything that I can purchase online that isn’t hundreds of dollars. Any thoughts or ideas?
Hi Michael,
Agree, it is not easy to find rocks selling online, and if we find some, often these rocks are more for suiseki and very expensive. For us in HK, we can’t find these kind of rocks for landscape bonsai too. We can go to Yingde – http://www.happybonsai.com/rocks-for-landscape-penjing-bonsai/ but its quite a long trip 😛 I once considered selling stones from Yingde in Happy Bonsai Shop but it will be difficult for every rock is so unique. And, they are heavy for shipping too.
please give me photo of penjing and clip and grow style bonsai. I m a Filipino bonsai artesan,
Hi Erwin,
Which photos of penjing do you want on my website? And what is your use of my photos?
i like the first one penjing
it’s giving me an idea for one of my huge maple that i recently acquired
will send you a photo tomorrow
john
Olá, belissimo trabalho, realmente a textura e a profundidade do desing ficaram excelentes!
é uma pena que vc não entenda nada do que eu disse rsss
mas mesmo assim, parabéns!!!!
Edicarlos,
Obrigado por sua apreciação. Apesar de falarmos idiomas diferentes, a nossa paixão de bonsai é a mesma.
Desejamos-lhe um dia maravilhoso!
hi Sandy
Iam from Indonesia, and i want to say to you if in Indonesia we have many tree original on the rock.
we are very2 lovely bonsai of penjing. especialy in Surabaya Indonesia. we have bonsai school center and now we are creating bonsai penjing original on the rock. very nice, good look and is not borred.
Hery