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Suiseki Exhibition in 2010 Guangzhou International Bonsai Invitation Exhibition

Post author By Sandy
Post date February 15, 2011
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In 2010 Guangzhou International Bonsai Invitation Exhibition, aside from the fascinating bonsai, there was also a suiseki exhibition, showing some amazingly beautiful rocks. I am sorry for the delay, but I am sure many of you would like to check out photos of the rocks in the suiseki exhibition nevertheless.

For more photos, please visit the album of Suiseki Exhibition in 2010 GZ Int’l Bonsai Invitation Exhibition in Happy Bonsai Gallery.

Suiseki Stone – 孔雀石 (Malachite)
Title – 人與自然 (Direct Translation: Men and Nature)

All the suiseki stones presented in the suiseki exhibition had very beautiful daiza. Not only was the wood base carefully carved to the details of the stone, it also integrated closely to the theme in such an harmony. How could one not love suiseki after seeing all these beautiful work of nature together with such skillful craftsmanship!

Suiseki Stone – 黄蜡石 (Chrismatite)
Title – 風山水起 (Meaning: Things will become striking, extraordinary)

Suiseki Stone – 青花石 (Don’t know the stone type in English, could anyone help?)
Title – 美人魚 (Literal Meaning: Mermaid)

Suiseki Stone – 紅壁玉 (Don’t know the stone type in English too, could anyone help?)
Title – 母子情 (Literal Meaning: Love of Mother and Child)

Suiseki Stone – 戈壁石組合
Title – 守望家園 (Literal Meaning: Guarding the Family)

Bonsai Figurines Featured Articles

Foshan Nanfeng Kiln & Shiwan Chinese Figurines

Post author By Sandy
Post date February 8, 2011
No Comments on Foshan Nanfeng Kiln & Shiwan Chinese Figurines

Shiwan has been known for its beautiful earthenware figurines for hundreds of years. Indeed, the term “Shiwan figurine” is widely used to refer to all sculptures made in Shiwan. While many fans of Shiwan figurines are bonsai lovers who enjoy decorating their bonsai trees with Chinese figurines, others simply love collecting these beautiful artworks, admire the fine, lively details of these handmade figurines.

Last year, with other bonsai lovers, we went to the ancient Nanfeng Kiln – the oldest kiln in China. Here is where the pottery art of Fochan began. The history of the kiln can be tracked back to the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). It is just amazing that this ancient kiln still can operate perfectly.

In Nanfeng Kiln, besides the ancient kiln, watching the process of making pottery and figurines is very interesting as well. Below is a video I took of Nanfeng Kiln’s guest figurine artist – Mr Huo Wei Sheng – when the figurine craftsman was making figurines of the eight immortals.

Unlike many modern kilns that have become very sophisticated and can be calibrated to meet very specific temperatures, in Nanfeng Kiln, the traditional pottery making techniques live on. Timbers are put into the kiln and the temperature can reach up to 1,300 degrees Celsius. Temperature control is especially important when baking figurines and pots.

Instead of depending on modern day’s instruments, temperature is controlled by the skilled artisans according to their experience. Due to the inconstancy of temperature in the timber-burning kiln, it is interesting to see how all figurines and pots are made unique even though they all are bring into and out of the kiln at the same time.

For more photos, please visit the album of Ancient Nanfeng Kiln – Shiwan Chinese figurines in Happy Bonsai Gallery.

Journal

Bonsai Garden of 雅石盆景協會 (Rock Penjing Association)

Post author By Sandy
Post date February 1, 2011
3 Comments on Bonsai Garden of 雅石盆景協會 (Rock Penjing Association)

Earlier this month, I had the opportunity to visit the remarkable bonsai garden of 雅石盆景協會 (literal translation: Rock Penjing Association) with Mr. Wong Chau Shing – the President of Institute of Lingnan Penjing and Mr. Liu Chuan Gang – the President of Hainan Penjing Association. The bonsai garden, itself, was a beautiful place that has been used for shooting several movies and tv programs. Among the several hundreds pots of penjing in the garden, we can find some beautiful penjing by the late penjing master, Mr. Wong Kee Mein, as well as some award-winning penjing by some of the committee members of Rock Penjing Association. Here I would like to share with you some photos I took in the bonsai garden.

For more photos, please visit the Rock Penjing Association Tour in Happy Bonsai Gallery.

The design and landscape of this Chinese garden express the formless, indefinable asymmetry with a curvilinear layout derived from the nature.

Many beautiful bonsai trees 🙂

Bonsai Events Featured Articles

2011 Bonsai Show List

It is the beginning of another year, and I have made a list of bonsai shows that will be held in 2011 (excluding bonsai shows in Japan) so for all bonsai lovers to mark their calendars and plan ahead. While this is a long list with most of the major bonsai shows listed, it is not fully comprehensive. To complete the list, I would need your help. If you find a bonsai show that is not on the list (especially those big major ones) or any information on this list that isn’t correct, I would really appreciate it if you could let me know the details.

Thanks in advance and Happy Bonsai!

What?	Where?	When?
Consurso Bonsái Paterna 2011	Paterna, Spain	12-13 February 2011

Noelanders Trophy XII International Bonsai Show	Heusden-Zolder, Belgium	22-23 January 2011

9th Swindon Bonsai Winter Show	Swindon, UK	20 February 2011
Swindon & District Bonsai will host its 2011 Winter Show in The Stratton Community Centre.

“Shohin Off” presented by The British Shohin Association	Norhumberland, UK	19-20 March 2011
Workshops, lectures, critiques, forums, exhibitions, bonsai traders and more

National Bonsai Expo	Coventry, UK	26 March 2011
Bonsai Traders Association holds 3 trade shows every year.

Mistral Bonsai	Spain	2-3 April, 2011
Two days of bonsai workshops, plus Chinese tea tasting, ikebana, live martial arts demonstration and more

Best of British Bonsai 2011	Birmingham, UK	9-10 April 2011
Workshops,exhibitions, and trade fair

Bonsai Slovakia 2011	Slovakia	14-17 April 2011
Bonsai, suiseki and tea exhibition with international cultural and art show, also bonsai demonstrations, tea Ceremonies, music, workshops and more

28th Annual Mid-Atlantic Bonsai Societies Spring Festival	PA, USA	15-17 April 2011
“Renowned international professional bonsai artists will present lecture/demonstrations, workshops, and critiques of bonsai”; plus exhibition and bonsai vendors

26th Arcobonsai Convention	Arco (Trentino), Italy	6-8 May 2011
“Exhibitions of bonsai and suiseki. Featuring Takashi Iura and the 10th So-Saku Bonsai Award and the 1st Masahiko Kimura Award. Concurrently there’s the 13th Arcofiori.”

Lone Star Bonsai Federation 2011 Convention “Gateway of Bonsai”	TX, USA	13-15 May 2011
Hosted by the Corpus Christi Bonsai Society; Featuring Ed Trout, Bill Valavanis, Sean Smith, and Terry Ward. Details from Yvonne Padilla at myforest@sbcglobal.net.

“West Meet East – East Meet West”	Poland	20-22 May 2011
Demo: Taiga Urushibata, Kevin Willson, Robert Kempinski, Jarek Lenarczyk

24th National Bonsai Convention – Come Together	Perth, Western Australia	20-23 May 2011
Featuring Min Hsuan Lo (Taiwan), Megumi Bennett and Yasuko Aoki; 3.5 full-days of demos and workshops

Atelier do Bonsai	Ribeirão Preto, Brazil	27-29 May 2011
Atelier do Bonsai Mario A G Leal is proud to present its 6th annual BONSAI. Demonstrators Nacho Marin from Venezuela and Bernie Callaghan from Namibia.We have International visitors like Marita Gurruchaga from Argentina, Daniel Daza from Chile, and Louis Nel from South Africa and other Brazilian masters.For more information go to http://www.atelierdobonsai.com.br or contact by E-mail:mario@atelierdobonsai.com.br

National Bonsai Society Annual Show	Southport, UK	29-31 May 2011

6th International Bonsai & Suiseki Exhibition and 2nd Japanese Festival	Vilnius, Lithuania	9-12 June 2011
Hosted at Commerce and Entertainment Centre “OZAS”, Ozo str. 18 LT-08243, Vilnius, Lithuania. Featuring Salvadore Liporace, Vaclav Novak, Keiko Borjeson, and Sae Won Kim. (Thanks Tomas Adomaitis for the information)

38th BSF Convention	FL, USA	10-12 June 2011
Demonstrations and workshops by Ryan Neil and Florida artists; also, bonsai exhibition, auction, vendor night, and more

Bonsai South West 2011	Exmouth, UK	12 June 2011
Exhibits by bonsai societies, traders, sales, etc. More info: Roger on 01392 623 842 or e-mail: brancheseverywhere@live.co.uk

Bonsai in the Bluegrass: BCI/ABS 2011	KY, USA	16-19 June 2011
A joint bonsai event held by American Bonsai Society (ABS) and Bonsai Clubs International (BCI); Demonstrations by international bonsai artists from Europe, Asia, Mexico, and the United States; Bonsai traders and large exhibition

National Bonsai Expo	Middlesex, UK	26th June 2011
Bonsai Traders Association holds 3 trade shows every year.

34th Mid-America Exhibit	IL, USA	19-21 Aug 2011
“One of the largest bonsai shows in the US, attracting over 100 trees, in Chicago Botanic Garden, with its world-class bonsai collection, features the CBG’s bonsai collection, competition, workshops, demos, and over a dozen of the top national vendors from around the country.”

Bonsai World 2011	West Sussex, UK	3-4 September 2011
Leading Bonsai Artists, Marc Nöelanders, John Armitage, Ken Norman and Rammon Hamers, will be holding demonstrations and workshops in the bonsai show. In addition, there will be a variety of Bonsai Trader Stands, together with displays from Sussex Bonsai Group and other bonsai clubs.

African Bonsai Convention	Durban, South Africa	22-26 September 2011
International Headliners: Robert Steven, Bill Valavanis

National Bonsai Expo	Sheffield, UK	25 September 2011
Bonsai Traders Association holds 3 trade shows every year.

European Bonsai Association Annual Convention and Exhibition – “Bonsai in the middle of Europe”	Ratingen, Germany	30 Sep – 2 Oct 2011
Demos: Othmar Auer, Werner M. Busch, Aurelio De Capitani, Serge Clemence, Udo Fischer, François Jeker, Hartmut Münchenbach, Christian Przybylski, Ralf Steiner, Jürgen Zaar; Lectures: Willi Benz and Peter Krebs

Carolina Bonsai Expo	Carolina, USA	8-9 October 2011
Exhibits by bonsai enthusiasts from a six-state region, renowned bonsai marketplace, workshops, demo, Ikebana exhibit, and more

Golden State Bonsai Federation 2011 Convention XXXIV: Bonsai Full Circle	CA, USA	27-30 October 2011
Golden State Bonsai Federation (GSBF) promotes the art of bonsai throughout California with vendor area, demos, workshops, and more.

Bonsai Figurines Gallery

Good Fun with Figurines in Bonsai

Post author By Sandy
Post date January 18, 2011
No Comments on Good Fun with Figurines in Bonsai

Penjing lovers like using bonsai figurines to decorate their penjing (bonsai in Chinese). Most of these figurines are the traditional Chinese clay figurines of historical or mythology figures. But in the 1st Institute of Lingnan Penjing Competition, I found that beside my use of Doraemon in my penjing, some of my penjing club fellow members also used figurines for their bonsai decoration in some fun, creative ways.

Very tiny these figurines are. Yet, nevertheless, these full-of-details figurines haven’t failed to meet our expectation and bring in life and vivid scenes in our bonsai.

Traditional Chinese figurines always look great in penjing 🙂

For more photos of the 1st Institute of Lingnan Penjing Competition, you can visit Happy Bonsai Gallery.

Bonsai Events Featured Articles Gallery

1st Institute of Lingnan Penjing Competition

Post author By Sandy
Post date January 13, 2011
1 Comment on 1st Institute of Lingnan Penjing Competition

As a step to promote penjing (bonsai in Chinese) to the public and add some spice and fun for our club members, Institute of Lingnan Penjing, Hong Kong (香港嶺南盆景藝術學會) held its 1st internal competition on December 12, 2010 at its workshop in Yuen Long. Every penjing club member was requested to participate in the competition. While every member must bring at least one penjing for competition / display, one could bring and show as many penjing as he/she wanted. For simplicity’s sake, there were only two categories in this competition – penjing less than 30cm and penjing over 30cm. While penjing of all sizes and styles were welcome, penjing-in-a-bottle, the non-traditional penjing / bonsai style, could not enter the competition, but only qualified for display.

Because of an important appointment on the same day, I couldn’t attend the whole event but only the setup stage of the competition. I missed not only the competition winner announcement, but also the pot-luck style luncheon afterward. That’s too bad for me 🙁

This beautiful piece is made by Teacher Wong. Teacher Wong calls this type of penjing “瓶景”, and I call it “penjing-in-a-bottle”.

This is my penjing-in-a-bottle, titled “The Adventure of Wherever Door – The World inside the Goldfish”.

You can find more information about the blue creature in my penjing (it’s called Doraemon by the way) in this post – Modern Bonsai – Doraemon Bonsai.

For more photos of the 1st Institute of Lingnan Penjing Competition, you can visit Happy Bonsai Gallery.

Bonsai Figurines Gallery

Use of Chinese Figurines in Penjing

Post author By Sandy
Post date December 13, 2010
2 Comments on Use of Chinese Figurines in Penjing

There is something that one can often find in a Chinese penjing but never in a Japanese bonsai. That is Chinese figurine. As mentioned in an earlier post – Figurines in Penjing, instead of focusing on the tree itself, Chinese penjing artists work on creating a miniature natural scene in a bonsai pot or on a marble slab. And with the use of Chinese figurines and mudmen, shacks and pavilion, cows and ducks, penjing artists can complete the illusion of a landscape in a very lively way.

And Chinese clay figurine itself is a valuable, antiquated folk art in China. Every Chinese figurine is handmade; kneaded and colored by hands. The art of Chinese clay figurine can be dated back to the Neolithic Period. However, it was not until the Ming and Qing dynasties that the clay figurine had been substantially produced and became one of the main artworks in the mass’s cultural life.

In last month’s Guangzhou International Bonsai Invitation Exhibition, while I was admiring the beautiful bonsai trees displayed in the bonsai pots, I also noticed and very much appreciated the way many bonsai artists used Chinese figurines in their bonsai to enhance the power and strength of their bonsai trees, as well as to create a more balanced, lively scene.

Here, let me share with you some Chinese figurines are used in some penjing in the bonsai exhibition.

Gallery

Beautiful Trees in Guangzhou International Bonsai Invitation Exhibition (Part 2)

Post author By Sandy
Post date December 7, 2010
4 Comments on Beautiful Trees in Guangzhou International Bonsai Invitation Exhibition (Part 2)

In the previous post – Beautiful Trees in Guangzhou International Bonsai Invitation Exhibition (Part 1), I have shared with you photos of many beautiful bonsai trees in the medium-to-large sized bonsai category. In this post, let me share with you some photos in the small bonsai – Shohin – category. In this category, Teacher Wong, won 2 golds and 2 silvers.

Go to post – Opening Ceremony of 2010 Guangzhou International Bonsai Invitation Exhibition
Go to post – Beautiful Trees in Guangzhou International Bonsai Invitation Exhibition (Part 1)

Beautiful Trees in Guangzhou International Bonsai Invitation Exhibition (Part 1)

Post author By Sandy
Post date December 6, 2010
5 Comments on Beautiful Trees in Guangzhou International Bonsai Invitation Exhibition (Part 1)

The Guangzhou International Bonsai Invitation Exhibition in November was the largest bonsai show in Guangzhou ever. In this bonsai show, 800 penjing were displayed (for a reference of the size – the greatest bonsai exhibition in Japan, Kokufu-ten, will display around 250 bonsai in its coming 2011 exhibition). This bonsai show in Guangzhou had successfully demonstrated the charm of penjing, particularly Lingnan penjing – an ancient and unique treasure that reflects the essence of Lingnan garden culture. Besides different parts of the mainland China, a great number of the bonsai displayed were from Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Japan, and Thailand. In addition, 40 golds, 78 silvers, and 169 bronzes were awarded in the bonsai show.

Go to post – Opening Ceremony of 2010 Guangzhou International Bonsai Invitation Exhibition
Go to post – Beautiful Trees in Guangzhou International Bonsai Invitation Exhibition (Part 2)

Bonsai Events Featured Articles

Opening Ceremony of 2010 Guangzhou International Bonsai Invitation Exhibition

Post author By Sandy
Post date November 30, 2010
1 Comment on Opening Ceremony of 2010 Guangzhou International Bonsai Invitation Exhibition

The 2010 Guangzhou International Bonsai Invitation Exhibition has just ended in the past weekend. This penjing exhibition, as one of the major cultural events during the Asian Games this year, took “Celebrating Guangzhou Asian Games, Promoting World Penjing Culture” as the theme, and invited many famous bonsai artists across the country and all over the world to exhibit their works. With the high attendance in the bonsai exhibition and the interest in penjing generated, the bonsai show was a great success.

Go to post – Beautiful Trees in Guangzhou International Bonsai Invitation Exhibition (Part 1)
Go to post – Beautiful Trees in Guangzhou International Bonsai Invitation Exhibition (Part 2)

On Nov 10, some bonsai friends and I together attended the open ceremony of the exhibition which took place in Guangzhou Dr. Sun Yet-Sen’s Memorial Hall – a significant landmark in Guangzhou.

In the opening ceremony, besides an award ceremony, there was also a presentation session demonstrated by several excellent bonsai artists.

With nearly 800 penjing, the 2010 Guangzhou International Bonsai Invitation Exhibition was the largest bonsai show in Guangzhou ever. This bonsai show had successfully demonstrated the charm of penjing, particularly Lingnan penjing – an ancient and unique treasure that reflects the essence of Lingnan garden culture.

I will share more photos of these beautiful bonsai very soon. Please wait a little 🙂

Besides bonsai, there was also a suiseki exhibition, showing some amazingly beautiful rocks. I surely will post more photos of this suiseki exhibition in the coming posts.