Walter's Maple

[Red Truck]

Spending time looking at this maple makes me want to design a formable bonsai with similar qualities. Can you give us any hints as to tree development history? If you were a guest at my house your ears would be buzzing with how was the trunk developed? Bonsai from the start or any tree that was selected. What pot sizes were used to develop after chopped I only assume. Along these lines or any growth development studies would be fantastic.
Thanks for your time!
I assume everyone knows where this picture came from.

Truck

 

[Rick Moquin]

I assume everyone knows where this picture came from.

Truck

... you could have used the one from Walter's site (for educational purposes). That way no one would get their nickers in a twist wrt copyright infringements

 

[Walter Pall]

Truck,

you can see the whole history here:

http://walter-pall.de/maplestrident_maple_nr__1.jpg.dir/index.html

I think it is self-explanatory. If not, I can always answer questions. In April I will put the tree into a new pot that Horst Heinzlreiter gave to me.

 

[ghues]

RT, Although it’s a great tree and some 67 years old, WP’s site only provides a glimpse at the last 17 years, not the first 50….which is what I think you were looking for?
I would imagine that there might be a lot of grow and chop going on in the growing fields of Japan or wherever it was imported from.
G

 

[Red Truck]

Here is another one of Walter's trees entered in the contest. Two of three judges gave this entry average marks to which left me searching for answers. Apex going wrong direction? I do not agree. I think Walter creats interest and tension with his apex centers drawing the viewer's eye to the trunk's movement and detail. Clever idea to which I will explore myself. I would have awarded a 10.

Truck

 

[Klytus]

Maybe it was simply the super hero head in the trunk that was offputting?

 

[Red Truck]

RT, Although it’s a great tree and some 67 years old, WP’s site only provides a glimpse at the last 17 years, not the first 50….which is what I think you were looking for?
I would imagine that there might be a lot of grow and chop going on in the growing fields of Japan or wherever it was imported from.
G

I would have liked to have had more scoop but this is fine. The one thing to understand is that one should not be too hard on oneself to duplicate a trunk like this maple. The concept to understand is this tree was selected from a group of material...probably allot of material. Trunk had to be perfect, root spread had to be perfect, scale of tree had to be perfect, variety of maple perfect and so on.
Now to compete with this, or reproduce this look would require more than 5 attempts, more than 20 attempts. Just so I understand this and don't drive myself crazy seeking an impossible mission.

Truck

 

[Klytus]

Trouble is that today we have the dubious benefit of image capture,these scribes of old coped without it.

 

[Red Truck]

How would of this lady's head looked if her head (apex) was centered on her torso? Jan-Vermeer had other thoughts in mind.

Truck

 

[Redwing]

How would of this lady's head looked if her head (apex) was centered on her torso? Jan-Vermeer had other thoughts in mind.

Truck

Unfair comparison! With this Vermeer, you follow her gaze back into the picture, not upward to the crown of her head and beyond.

-rw

 

[Klytus]

He was held back by the constraints of the time,she would be wearing denim today.

 

[Rick Moquin]

Apex going wrong direction? I do not agree. I think Walter creats interest and tension with his apex centers drawing the viewer's eye to the trunk's movement and detail. Clever idea to which I will explore myself. I would have awarded a 10.

Truck

The tree was acquired Sep '09 from Mauro Steinbrener, it is a radical change from it's origin. In time I would like to see where Walter will take this tree. The 1st branch being a back branch may present problems with the current front. I think I would have held this tree back for a couple of years, or at least until I (Walter) left my mark on it. A 10 at this time is premature.

 

[painter]

that painting happens to hold the most important piece of negative space in all of painting history,
check out that shape under her right arm and next to her body, amazing. i wish i could have thought of that.
painter.
ps. we should think like that while styling trees.

 

[Rick Moquin]

How would of this lady's head looked if her head (apex) was centered on her torso? Jan-Vermeer had other thoughts in mind.

Truck

... then she would be looking out the window and hence out of the picture!

 

[Tachigi]

... then she would be looking out the window and hence out of the picture!

I disagree Rick! Her gaze is down ... she would be looking at her cleavage (which begs the question WHY) and hence into the inner picture

 

[Redwing]

that painting happens to hold the most important piece of negative space in all of painting history,
check out that shape under her right arm and next to her body, amazing.

Interesting -- please tell us more about this white space?

-rw

 

[Klytus]

It's tripe.

What else would it be?

 

[Smoke]

that painting happens to hold the most important piece of negative space in all of painting history,
check out that shape under her right arm and next to her body, amazing. i wish i could have thought of that.
painter.
ps. we should think like that while styling trees.

I hold a dust rag in my hand the whole time I am working on trees...

....the more important question is what are the monkey men from the Wizard of Oz doing on the base board?

 

[Red Truck]

Vanishing point paint layer? I cheated!

Truck

 

[Smoke]

The rule says that the termination of the apex should follow the line of the trunk on slanting trees. Of course rules are meant to be broken so allowing the apex to oppose the slant of the trunk is no big deal if it works.

The problem with opposing apex does not rear it's ugly head untill you try to put the tree into a three point display. Then you have the line of the trunk going one way complimenting the scroll and this weird apex pointing out of the picture.