Rafael Monje's Exhibit in Madrid

Hello All,

after all Chinese and Vietnamese stones I need to share with you a nice Suiseki Lover: Rafael Monje.
All stones are natural ,no cut, no polished, only clean following Japanese suggestions.He made a very nice
exhibit in Madrid at beginning of November. Chris, in a sense my suiseki brother, told me to share directly the pictures of
rafael and his stones, here below two pictures for beginning:








I hope you will like them,

furuya

We follow with some nice Toyama-ishi :







lingbi

other stones Toyama-ishi :













I wait your comments, please, before to send other pictures,

furuya

Thank you for posting these wonderful images of Rafael's suiseki, they are all beautiful stones and extremely well presented. I am really looking forward to seeing more.

Wow,very nice stone and Daiz ist perfect
thank you for sharing

Hi Marco... I couldn't open expanded photos on the Spanish stone forum, but these photos are fantastic. Those who know the collector speak of him with high regard. He is described as humble & often private in regard to his collecting. This was designed to be a one-time exhibit.

These stones look like those we associate with Liguria IT, but I think a Spanish forum poster noted that all were from Spain. Were all collected in Spain by Rafael? The Google translation from Spanish wasn't clear about the daiza and wood tables in the exhibit-- are these from the stone collector's hand? Some are exceptionally creative, others honor traditional craft styles and all appear well-crafted.

One mountain-view stone has concentric wrinkles that I associate with Lingbi Wen stones. Textures which are repetitive can suggest age (especially geological layering over eons) though their own formation might not be so old. For me, this stone has Chinese-style scholarly interest in addition to Japanese-style mounting and landscape-view interest. The cross cultural allusions make it very appealing.

Another stone recalls a stone I once saw in a farmhouse in Sarzana, Italy. That particular stone had a plexiglass daiza directly under the stone (simulating the clay ring found at the bottom of many Ligurian stones) which was then fitted into a nice wood daiza. Rafael Monje's choices for daiza or creative wood seats seems sensitive & well-chosen. Each one elevates the stone. That is rare among all stones in many exhibits.

Thanks for sharing, Marco!

All just amazing. I especially thought image #3 was pretty spectacular. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for your appreciation,Rafael is a very nice person, I known him across our French Forum of Suiseki because he is close to one of my French friend who lives in South West French near Pyrenees Mountains.
All his stones come from Spanish Basque Country ( Spain North East), I visited his web site two years ago and from first stones and above all his first daiza and these last, there is a long path. I think he has more or less 400 stones all found by him along much years.
The stones have the same source of Ligurian stones, they are limestone with some small different inclusions.The main wood used by Rafael is mahogany. I will read what the web site says about daiza and tomorrow I will explain for you.

Last year I have gone to collect stones on Pyrenees with some friend of our forum, I got one very nice which will have soon a daiza.
Now other pictures:

marco

Ah, thanks Marco, that confirms something that I have known for a long time. I collected one of my favourite stones from this area many years ago. I really must get back and explore more, while I am still fit enough to climb! The zone I was in had geology that closely resembled Murphy's stones.

Kev,

you are right, in Europe we have many places where find Murphy stones, in Italy in South Tuscan and in French and Spain in
Basque Country. I will show you soon these stones once I will finish to share this exhibit.

Other stones:

still other stones:





























Here exhibit ends, I will send you now a translation of what people said about it.

marco

Thanks for the terrific additional photos, Marco. If you can share anything about the daiza/wood-seat carvers, I'd like to know where such skill is found. Several appear as artists' works as well as fine craft.

Many fine tables under stones are also very nice. Is there a bonsai or stone club helping with accessories? Tables are very well-matched-- big-enough to not crowd & small-enough to not overpower the stones.

I agree, Chris, even tables are nice and made for each stone. The only criticism I can do is some foot here and there, but quality of these stones are remarquable. Anoher thing is that all mountain stones are distant, and I think to know why: all these stones are collected
in high mountains more than 1500mt (5250 feet about). In Ligurian the level is lower and there is much less snow and for less time, so you will find "Kinzan-seki".
If I can next, I will post a joke on daiza feet, I hope you will appreciate.

For people comments on Spanish web site, nothing of interesting except congratulations, so I will not do translation.
Now I will show you in another thread, some other stones not in this exhibit, you will see Murphy's stones.

marco