grouper52
Masterpiece
I may have posted this Penjing here before in the gallery - not sure. Anyway, here it is in its current incarnation today. I've been messing with it for about three years.
The components are as follows, and I will use them to teach a bit about penjing to those who might like to know.
First, and foremost, the impressive hunk of limestone from Vancouver Island, much of which, BTW, is actually a large chunk of land drifted over from China eons ago, and therefore VI is chock full of great Chinese-looking rocks! The smaller rocks, mostly lining the water's edge are also limestone, a type named Ying rock after the area where it is found, and it looks similar and harmonizes well with the VI rock.
Chinese place more emphasis on the rock than the trees in such compositions. This makes it easy to use poor quality trees in such scenes, but the rock is actually emphasized because it is eternal - or at least much more so than the fly-by-night trees.
The trees here are Hokkaido Chinese elms bought for a few bucks each from a little non-bonsai nursery near here. Practically worthless as bonsai, despite showing the illusion of promise, they are even more worthless in the ground as landscaping trees - so I'm not sure why that nursery was trying to pedal them, but they suited my purposes, and have shown resilience and appeal in this composition.
Penjing usually shows at least some hint of human presence, even if not actual humans. The Chinese find nature boring wihout the human element to give it human meaning. Here there are three little mudmen by the water's edge to round out the scene. Even more transitory than the trees, they lend context and meaning and interest to the scene.
It all sits in a white marble tray of classic style. I got the tray from Robert Cho, the owner of Asia Pacific Gardening, who imports such things (and the Ying rock) from China.
This is a land and water penjing. The harmony of the elements, and the peaceful quality created thereby, are always the primary concern. Other than the harmonious blending of disparate elements, there are few rules in Penjing, but the form here is fairly classic. It's about 30" in length.
Enjoy.
The components are as follows, and I will use them to teach a bit about penjing to those who might like to know.
First, and foremost, the impressive hunk of limestone from Vancouver Island, much of which, BTW, is actually a large chunk of land drifted over from China eons ago, and therefore VI is chock full of great Chinese-looking rocks! The smaller rocks, mostly lining the water's edge are also limestone, a type named Ying rock after the area where it is found, and it looks similar and harmonizes well with the VI rock.
Chinese place more emphasis on the rock than the trees in such compositions. This makes it easy to use poor quality trees in such scenes, but the rock is actually emphasized because it is eternal - or at least much more so than the fly-by-night trees.
The trees here are Hokkaido Chinese elms bought for a few bucks each from a little non-bonsai nursery near here. Practically worthless as bonsai, despite showing the illusion of promise, they are even more worthless in the ground as landscaping trees - so I'm not sure why that nursery was trying to pedal them, but they suited my purposes, and have shown resilience and appeal in this composition.
Penjing usually shows at least some hint of human presence, even if not actual humans. The Chinese find nature boring wihout the human element to give it human meaning. Here there are three little mudmen by the water's edge to round out the scene. Even more transitory than the trees, they lend context and meaning and interest to the scene.
It all sits in a white marble tray of classic style. I got the tray from Robert Cho, the owner of Asia Pacific Gardening, who imports such things (and the Ying rock) from China.
This is a land and water penjing. The harmony of the elements, and the peaceful quality created thereby, are always the primary concern. Other than the harmonious blending of disparate elements, there are few rules in Penjing, but the form here is fairly classic. It's about 30" in length.
Enjoy.