Potomac Viewing Stone Group- late Spring to mid Summer

Since the early Spring exhibit at the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum, PVSG has had two meetings & collecting trips for the entire club as well as among friends. I've not photographed the collecting trips.

In early spring, the club discussed members object stones. I took about two dozen (none photographed, there). Members discussed what they saw in their own stones as strengths & weaknesses in object stone choices. While there were some unanimous preferences there were also decided differences in taste among those gathered. Lighting was low, & success in capturing photos was modest...

Glenn Reusch (next 4 photos including stones)...





Others' object stones...







a nice alternative view ...




In mid summer, the club visited Sean Smith at his home/studio. Sean reported on the suiseki world & on stone mounting considerations.


Stone of Ponder Henley...


On the way to & from Sean's, I shared a ride with Elliot Mitchnick. You can see an article by Elliot on tsukubai at the JapaneseGardening.org website. Chance encounters with bright knowledgeable & thoughtful folks occur often in PVSG activities. Elliot knows many folks with rare intimacy... including some I know mostly through reading. His introduction to many is through teaching tea for the Urasenke school. When we shared thoughts of galleries & museums, Elliot seemed to know the back rooms as well as public exhibition areas. Below, Elliot looks toward an item across the room in Sean's workshop while others are focused on a detail the speaker illustrates...