visit to Ryan Neil

Thanks Walter for sharing the pictures. Ryan is great bonsai talent and he will write lines to not just North American bonsai history. My 2 cents

Very impressive indeed!

I understand that making yamadori into a masterpiece presents big challenges. Finding good angles to plant the tree, working it back to prime vigor, and choosing the most effective aesthetic, these are the bread and butter of a master!

And yes, I too would LOVE to see his garden in person...

Thanks for sharing!
Rob

p.s. I feel no need to talk about the troll or seed comment. The big picture IS about what Ryan is doing to the American bonsai aesthetic. More power to the master!!!!

Khaimaraj,

a last one.... after that i will no more spam this post

a bad drawing shows my lack of talent (doesn`t mean i have no other talents). bad is bad..... otherwise it would be good.
a perfect copy of rubens (painted...not copied with mashine) shows my talent....... it`s a kind of bad luck for that talented people
that rubens did this paintings a few centuries ago. nevertheless, they are able to reproduce the same magnificant felling like rubnes did,
that is the mean goal of a perfect copy......ask yourself how many reproductions are hanging in all those well known galleries worldwide.
if you don`t know it`s a copy you will not mind and stand in front of this paintings making ahh and ohh.

we have different approaches to the same passion...and is good so.

to all....excuse for my off topic replies and wasting your space

kind regards
ladi

tony wrote:
Robert, count me in on that beer buddy we must celebrate Walters Birthday on the Saturday of Noelanders

Excellent Tony ! Saturday..which date is that ? So Walker will take care for the bill then ?

Rob Addonizio wrote: I feel no need to talk about the troll or seed comment. The big picture IS about what Ryan is doing to the American bonsai aesthetic. More power to the master!!!!

Hear hear! This thread is about those trees.

Robert Steven wrote:

tony wrote:
Robert, count me in on that beer buddy we must celebrate Walters Birthday on the Saturday of Noelanders

Excellent Tony ! Saturday..which date is that ? So Walker will take care for the bill then ?

...maybe "Walter" Robert not "Walker" ...hehe. Nice trees By the way,.

jun wrote:

Robert Steven wrote:

tony wrote:
Robert, count me in on that beer buddy we must celebrate Walters Birthday on the Saturday of Noelanders

Excellent Tony ! Saturday..which date is that ? So Walker will take care for the bill then ?

...maybe "Walter" Robert not "Walker" ...hehe. Nice trees By the way,.

Thanks Jun, certainly a mistyping..and an apology to Walter...

Hi Robert Saturday is the 19th Of January, Gala Dinner night

regards

Tony

tony wrote:Hi Robert Saturday is the 19th Of January, Gala Dinner night

regards

Tony

OK, I am preparing a birthday present for him...

tony wrote:Hi Robert Saturday is the 19th Of January, Gala Dinner night

regards

Tony

You misspelled Tony: it is Gala Drinking night, not dinner night!!!!
At least for most off us it is!!!!!
C U there my friend! And all the other friends!!!
Cheers,
Hans van Meer.

With regards to your photos, Walter, I must say that (aside from his work) I'm really impressed with the ingenious work done with the jig saw! There's a lot of bonsai philosophy in that alone: each angle, each cut, each with a specific purpose.

Particulalry this one:

Wow what a thread
Well back to the original topic of the thread :
Thanks for sharing those pictures with us Walter!
The trees you posted are breathtaking and its really great to see what Mr Neil is doing with "local products".
I also really liked the rock that Mr Neil used as pots in some of the pictures you've shot.


Could you shed some light on some of the pictures please?
It might be a really dumb question, but here goes anyway : Do you know what is the use of some of the wood planks in some of the pictures?



They seem to be there to prevent the soil from falling off while indenting the tree, but this does not seem to be a general practice from the pictures.
There are other indented trees that does not seem to have a "protective soil cover".
Is there another purpose for those planks?

Thanks in advance!
Xavier

Xavier,

I have some ideas about this but I think it is better to wait for Ryan himself to chime in. He has been notified about this thread.

Walter Pall wrote:Xavier,

I have some ideas about this but I think it is better to wait for Ryan himself to chime in. He has been notified about this thread.

Cool Thanks Walter!
waiting... [ actually can't wait... but... waiting... well you get what I mean... ]

thank you Walter for the pictures, and thank you Ryan Neil for giving permission to Walter to post this

Thank you

maybe the quality of what everyone saw here, gave some a mind-shock... relax, dont worry, its real what you see And whats more, no big words, no big statements, no big explanations will change anything about the fact that the trees we could all watch here are top quality, so thanks again Walter, these are just trees that have to be enjoyed in silence, watch and enjoy, thats all these trees ask, thats all what nature really asks.

Yes thank you Walter for the photographs... Considering the backgrounds the photos have turned out just brilliant!

I would give away my collection to even work on or even in the presence these beautiful trees!!

I wonder... Do you keep a full detailed record of all your trees Ryan??

Thanks
Bryan

Thank you for the photographs, Walter! To be great, one has to do great things. Ryan is even doing greater things! In just 4 years..beyond words.

Best,
Dorothy

dorothy7774 wrote:Thank you for the photographs, Walter! To be great, one has to do great things. Ryan is even doing greater things! In just 4 years..beyond words.

Best,
Dorothy

Dorothy,

really most of the shown trees were still sitting in their natural habitat four years ago. Most of them were styled from two years back to now. So this is only the very beginning. When I said four years ago this was really when this collection was started for serious I believe.
To me not only the quality of styled trees and the potential present in all trees is beyond believe but also the speed in which this collection was built.
Ryan can certainly shed light on this.

It's great to see a young budding artist gain a measure of acclaim. I hope that this country's bonsai community decides to support his work and acknowledge his talent. For those who wish to be critical of him desiring to see some of his earl work I would say this. After meeting and talking to Kimura in 2000 I find it hard to believe that he would take on an apprentice that had no talent.

I am saying what I said in Walter's Blog: Americans, after a long period of stagnation and inwardness since the 80’s, may have reached a time of ascending development in bonsai. A surge of serious students, turned professional, are seemly breaking through mediocrity and are focusing on works of the highest level using material of the highest level. Just as the great old dogs of American bonsai lean back after reaching their zenith, so rise new stars, focused and refined at the starting, seeped in sedulity.

I myself was interested in work in bonsai as a young man but in the end I gave my family my time and focus. As I dabbled in bonsai, I always seemed stuck on the horticultural aspects. Trees were collected but never gained vitality enough for dramatic styling. This is a fundamental difference I see with the new bonsai scene. As before, great trees were collected, but now they are being taken to the next level with a new and focused intention.

I have been a long time reader and a first time poster- until now.
Being from Colorado (Ryan's home state) I have been following Ryan since it was announced that he was coming home from Japan. And to see these photos and his website is awe inspiring in deed!! It is a true Bonsai artist that can, at his age, go to Japan and study with a teacher that did not want you there in the first place, graduate, come home and prove to the world that you are the best!! Can you tell I like the guy?

For those that know Ryan and have heard his stories, you are aware that it took him a long time to get Kimura to accept him as an apprentice. It was not really based on his talent or lack of talent. It was because on all the referrences he had and his persistence. Kimura was not interested in having an American apprentice, for whatever his reasons were. Ryan had to prove himself once he was there, not before. Lucky for us, Kimura did accept him!!

As for the troll's seed remark, I don't want to feed him but I have to (sorry). This is a topic that has been a pet peeve of mine. I think for a person to ask, "why don't you do the same thing with a seed", truly does not understand the art of bonsai. Yes, there are people out there that grow bonsai from seed. And there is nothing wrong with this. The reasons for doing so are many; maybe you can't afford the cost of a "refined" bonsai, you don't want something that large, or maybe you just like doing things "from scratch". But to think that you can get the same results as Ryan has obtained in these photos from a seed, is truly lacking in the understanding of bonsai. We are talking about two different "styles", for the lack of a better word. Yes, you can get some nice looking trees from a seed, I have done that myself. But I would never, in a million years, dream of attaining the kind of beauty mother nature has put into these trees before Ryan obtained them. It is not the goal of a bonsai artist to imitate mother nature by creating what she did from seed. It is more a goal to "refine" what she has already created into something that is your personal form of art. Doing a bonsai from seed is not a true measure of a person's artistic ability. The true measure is what you can do in your refining. Enough said on that topic.

Noone has said this yet, but if Tex Guy's troll comment was about Khaimraj, then he doesn't know Khaimraj or his contribution to this forum in his 1,400 plus posts.

Khaimraj, does things differently than others and Thank God for that.

Believe it or not, Walter Pall has caught heat too for some of his creations and his sharp words. But he's Austrian....so we have to cut him some slack for that. LOL.

The fact that Walter's photos blew up this topic to 5 pages..........is a testament in and of itself. I kind of hope Ryan doesn't respond to this thread. I worry sometimes that when bonsai artists of the stature of Walter Pall, Ryan Neil, Suthin Sukosolvisit, Boon Manakitivipart, Robert Steven, Bill Valavanis, etc. open themselves up on a forum like this, then the 6 ft 8, 300lb NFL linebackers with a keyboard and something to say can push them away. I remember a Walter Pall topic about Mateusz Grobelny that went WILD. I'm glad Walter and some of the others are still around. Great news for this forum.

Happy Holidays everyone!!!!!
Sam

Khaimraj Seepersad wrote:

I would rather see a bad drawing by someone being honest, than a perfect copy of a Rubens.

In 4 years, someone who has mastered the growing techniques, taught to him, would show as an individual, what he could really do.

Your analogy of bad drawings and copies or Rubens, makes no sense. Actually, not only it doesn't make sense, but it is also insulting, because it reeks of an agenda. You are either uninformed about his work, or simply don't care. I venture to guess, it's both. Ryan did nothing to deserve that.

As far as I can see from the pictures, Ryan makes no copies of anything. He simply works with the best collected material available in the US. Surely, you are not going to hold that against him, I hope.

A collected material is like a blank canvas. It is the best damned canvas available, of course, but it is still blank, since there is not a trace of bonsai in it. It's just a mess of a tree. Now it is Ryan's turn, during the next 20 years, to turn these "blank canvases" into bonsai.

When an old tree like this, is collected, it takes a few years just to nurture them into good health again, before they are ready to be worked on.

So, you need to be patient and wait a few more years, before you can see "what Ryan really can do". As you said, bonsai takes time.

Khaimraj Seepersad wrote: A seed or small cutting requires the grower to design the effort, a found trunk, will end up with a green hat.

Are you suggesting that Ryan will create nothing but a "green hat" on his trees, or are you saying that every yamadori will necessarily end up with a "green hat", regardless of the person who works on it?
I can safely tell here that I've seen just as many "green hats" created on trees grown from seed, or cuttings. The "green hat syndrome" is not the product of the tree's origin. It has to do with the person who creates it, so it is entirely irrelevant in this conversation.

Among the aspects of Ryan's bonsai (and other great bonsai) that make them exceptional are age and weathering. The trees that Ryan obtains from Randy Knight, who does most of the collecting in Colorado, are Ponderosa and Limber pines as well as Rocky Mountain Junipers that have spent literally centuries in areas with rather severe weather and exposure. Ponderosa pine, for example, takes 125 years--probably more--before its bark takes on the flat-plated, orange-hued appearance that some of the finest PP bonsais have. Those trees and the others have ancient deadwood with a patina and weather-checking/aging that cannot be reproduced by the human hand--not even if you're Masahiko Kimura. Randy's talent for finding these trees that a) have the age and dignity, b) have the poetry of movement and c) have enough roots close to the trunk to make good bonsai is astonishing, seeing as he finds so many and has them survive.

Ryan's bonsai (which are nearly all for sale, by the way), are truly astonishing trees. Ryan has the talent of creating foliage masses that really accentuate the age and dignity of the material he's working with.