Bonsai - The Art of Living Sculpture

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Bonsai: The Art of Living Sculpture approaches bonsai as art, exploring how the basics of the fine arts, particularly sculpture, apply to bonsai. Unlike sculptors, though, bonsai artists work with living material, and this book investigates the unique challenges and rewards of working with material that changes with the seasons and evolves with age.

Bonsai pays tribute to the artistry and design behind these fascinating miniature trees. The text compares the ancient art of bonsai to the traditional arts and focuses on the specific design elements of the bonsai-the roots, trunk, branches, foliage, and container-and discusses how bonsai artist manipulate these elements for a specific effect. Unlike the traditional arts, bonsai requires working with material that is alive and ever-changing, presenting unique challenges and rewards.

Featured are photographs from the most highly-regarded bonsai artists throughout the world. The bonsai photographed are not only the most popular pine, juniper, elm and boxwood, but also the more exotic or colorful rhododendron, crabapple, wisteria, and bougainvillea. A useful reference section provides a list of public bonsai collections worldwide.

Author Biography: Jack Douthitt has been a bonsai enthusiast for over thirty years. The former president of Bonsai Clubs International, he has served as a judge at bonsai exhibits and exhibited his own award-winning bonsai at various shows. Jack's bonsai appear in both the National Arboretum Collection of American Bonsai in Washington, D.C. and the Weyerhaeuser Pacific Rim Bonsai Collection in Tacoma, Washington. In 1987, he was named "One of America's Outstanding Bonsai Artists" by the National Bonsai Foundation.