Posted on December 29th, 2008 by hans van meer
Posted in MY PHOTOGRAPHS | 2 Comments »
Hi everybody,
these pictures were shot this afternoon with my cell phone.
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I hope you like these shots of the semi wild pony’s, that roam the protected wet dune forest than runs along a big part of the coast line close to my home? After you walked trough this beautiful and rare landscape you walk straight on to the beach, were I spent most of my summer free time!
Hans.
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Posted on December 22nd, 2008 by hans van meer
Posted in MY PHOTOGRAPHS | 1 Comment »
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I shoot this picture with my mobile phone 2 days ago, during a winter storm. I drove up to the sea, to a place were I often spent time to do some soul surging. This place is were the sea meets the lighthouse, at the entrance of the old harbor in the small town were I live. Especially the sunsets in winter time are wonderful viewed from this magical place! I And although I was half frozen, I still manage to shoot over a hundred Photographs, so the battery of my cell most have been really low to cause this extreme colors, how else would you explain it? But they sure turned out pretty nice, with out any photo shopping by me!
So I used it to make this X-mas cart for all my Bonsai friends who visit my Bonsai blog, It is highly appreciated by me, believe me! My new website will be opened pretty soon as well, so that is exciting stuff as well for me! Merry X-mas and a very happy and healthy New Year to everybody!
Hans van Meer.
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Posted on December 17th, 2008 by hans van meer
Posted in MY WORK | 3 Comments »
Hi everybody,
yesterday I finished the final styling of my “Hinoki cypres” Chamacyparis obtusa ‘Nana Grasciles’ 95 cm/38 inch.
About 12 years ago, I was very lucky to buy 4 or 5 of this old old “Hinoki’s” directly from a professional grower in “Boskoop” (Holland). He had planted them together with his father some 50 years ago, when he was still a young boy. He seamed to like the idea of having them restyled into Bonsai! All these long years, the small scrubs were used as “Mother plants”, every year all the strong growth was cut off to be used for grafting or as cuttings. So the trees had remained small for all those years and most of the foliage grew close to the trunk. But this was not the case with this tree, it was tall, straight and all the foliage was located in the top part of the tree. So I only had some branches in the top that I had to bend down and let grow for many years. So I had to style the tree in a way, that made those hanging branches believable. This “Hinoki” would be a fantasy tree (they don’t exist as large trees) and styled as a Old Pine/Larch/Picea solitaire, that lost it’s top section some were in the past and all of it’s bottom growth, and all of the branches were forced down by the weight of the winter snow. I have seen examples of those old soldiers on many a high mountain side in the Alps. So, to give the trunk more interest, I made a Shari over the full length of the trunk. And then waited for all these years, until now, for the foliage to grow and the branches to thicken, in the mean wile the Shari aged very nicely and the bark grew beautifully over the deadwood in some places, making it all look aged and mature. I really love the foliage of these “Hinoki’s”, you can create wonderful foliage pads, with out it becoming to overly styled, it looks really natural, like a tree in the distance. I think this fantasy tree gives of a good impresion of a aged mountain dweller now and I decided to enter it into the “Noellanders Trophy” next January! Although this species is not so commonly used in Bonsai any more, I do believe they are wonderful material for good bonsai! Even this, not so good starting material, turned out into a believable old looking tree. This tree has become a good representative of what I seek for in my designs and styling, I hope you like it to? 
I found this wooden slab to place it on in the show, do you think it goes well with this tree?
Regards,
Hans van meer.
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Posted on December 8th, 2008 by hans van meer
Posted in MY WORK | 1 Comment »
Hi everybody,
Yesterday I finally had the change to finish the work on my Pinus Uncinata. Although it took me a month or so to long to do it all, I am glad with the outcome of my work. The tree had enough growth and new foliage for me to give the image more height and width, I even removed a major branch from the left bottom branch. There was no more need for heavy wire, every main branch is fixated, more or less, in it’s right place. I tried to create more layers in the separate foliage pads and more open spaces between the foliage, these details create a whole new feeling when I look at it. The tree, now, looks taller and more like it is growing in the distance. I feel this is very important part of the future process of trying to find some sort of believable balance in this extreme Bonsai design I have in my mind for this Pine!
More to come!
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Above picture: I placed the tree in a virtual pot to get a feel of how it will look, in a more upright position. As you can see, the open spaces increased a lot between the bottom branches and the soil level. And that is something to take along in the next restyling session. This is not a pot I would go for, but it will do for this purpose.
I hope you like this old Pine as much as I do,
Hans van Meer.
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