Gallery of Bonsai Exhibitions
SABA Convention 2007
General pictures of the SABA Convention 2007 at the Wits School of Education, Parktown. View SABA Convention 2007 Gallery
East Rand Bonsai Kai - Show November 2006 at Heckers Nursery, Boksburg
Approximately 100 trees on display. There was a new trophy for best indigenous tree on show and it was won by Ria van Staden for a Star Jasmine. View East Rand Bonsai Kai Show Gallery
Shibui Bonsai Kai - Annual Exhibition October 2006
Shibui Bonsai Kai hosted their 25th annual exhibition recently at the Johannesburg Botanic Gardens. There were a variety of trees on display, some being displayed for the first time.
Attendance over the weekend was good - for those unable to attend, here are a few pictures for you to enjoy. View Shibui Bonsai Kai - Annual Exhibition Gallery
Gallery of Bonsai Artists
Rudi
Adam first started bonsai in spring 1970, with a group of enthusiasts that went to the first show of the Cape Bonsai Kai at Kirstenbosch.
His first tutor was the late Bernard Coetzee, founder of most Cape based clubs.
It was tough to learn in those days, since books were a rare commodity, but after saving some money the Cape Bonsai Kai was the first club to import the well known bonsai master John Naka. His enthusiasm and wide range knowledge of bonsai as well as tree species catapulted us to the forefront of the art, outside of the Japanese community.
Rudi’s visit to the first World Bonsai Convention in Japan (1989) and his travels through this lovely country, made it possible for him to understand the history and thoughts behind the art of bonsai, martial arts, ikebana, suiseki and other Japanese art form practiced. It is one thing to see pictures in books, but quite another to see the real thing.
To compare the different schools within bonsai, Rudi has also travelled to Europe, Hong Kong, Taiwan and over most of Mainland China, viewing bonsai, gardens, and cultural events (1994). These are expriences Rudi recommends to everyone.
view Rudi Adam gallery :: contact: rabonsai@global.co.za
Charles
Ceronio started bonsai in 1968 and studied the art under the world famous Bonsai Master, Mr John Naka of California. He assisted Mr Naka in Pretoria during his numerous visits to South Africa. A co-founder of the Pretoria Bonsai Kai in 1969, he also wrote a book, "Bonsai Styles of the World" which was published in 1999. The book was well received all over the world and received an exceptionally good review in the March 2000 edition of the BCI publication.
Charles participates at national and provincial levels at South African bonsai conventions. In 2001, he was invited by Mr Naka to do a demonstration at the meeting of his master pupils at the Nanpo Bonsai Kai in Los Angeles, under the chairmanship of Roy Nagatoshi.
In the same year he also gave a lecture on the art of bonsai at Long Island, New York.
The Namibian Bonsai Association invited him to do demonstrations and workshops in 2001. In 2002 and 2003, Charles did demonstrations and workshops at Harry Tomlinson's Summer School in Nottingham, England. The April 2003 Slovak Bonsai Convention in Nitra also found Charles doing demonstrations and workshops. He was also invited as the headliner to Polish Bonsai Convention in Warsaw in 2004.
Charles was also co-organizer for the First International Bonsai Convention for Southern Africa held in Pretoria, 2002.
Charles has appeared on several bonsai programmes for radio and national television as well as in Slovakia, and has written bonsai articles for leading South African magazines and newspapers. He is the creator of six African bonsai styles, which have become the most popular styles used in Southern Africa. Charles is a strong advocate for the use of indigenous plant material for bonsai as the are well adapted for the harsh African climate. During 1999 and 2000, two of his trees were selected as being one of the hundred best trees in the world by the Nippon Bonsai Association (sponsored by the Japanese Air Lines) in Japan.
view Charles Ceronio gallery :: contact: charlesceronio@telkomsa.net
Half
of Carl Morrow's life has been devoted to a path of passionate bonsai study
involving many fellow Cape Town growers, most notably Bernard Coetzee, Len
Redfern and Rudi Adam. Kenneth Doble started all of the trouble in 1987, when
Carl was only fifteen years old! Since then he has attended many national bonsai
conventions as well as visited Australia (to attend the IBC 1995), Hong Kong,
China, the United States of America, Holland and Italy. Largely due to space
and resource limitations he deems to have a reasonably small collection of
trees, about 150 with only 10 to 15 that he considers of show standard. The
rest are in various stages of development, from small cuttings through rough,
unworked, collected stock up to trees that are nearly ready to be put into
their show pots.
He enjoys the challenge of working on marginal bonsai stock and strongly believes
in "design before style" principles of working on trees. This philosophy advocates
that one must work with the tree’s own good and bad points in order to reveal
the essential beauty of the bonsai. One must not impose a preconceived idea
onto the tree. He is an experienced lecturer having given talks in Sydney and
Brisbane, Australia, and at a number of South African National Bonsai Conventions.
He is a member of both Cape Bonsai Kai and Óyama Bonsai Kai and has served
as President in the latter, remarkable considering he was only 23 years of
age at the time.
He enjoys writing about the art and his articles and ramblings have appeared
in BCI's Bonsai Magazine, Bonsai Europe (and its predecessor, Bonsai), Veld
and Flora (The Botanical Society of South Africa’s magazine) and many club
publications. One of his trees was selected as one of the top 100 trees in
the World Bonsai Contest 2002. Pictures of his trees have been used in many
South African lifestyle magazines and have even been featured in an issue of
You and Huisgenoot magazines. Carl was the South African consultant on The
Bonsai Handbook and the alternatively formatted version, Pocket Bonsai, written
by David Prescott. He also contributed photographs to the updated Bonsai in
South Africa by Doug Hall and published by Joda Bonsai Distributors. In 2004,
Carl and Keith Kirsten wrote the book, Bonsai Success in Southern Africa.
In addition to his core love of bonsai, he developed an appreciation and interest
in natural artistic stones (suiseki). He also enjoys the challenge of bonsai
photography and feels that it is very important that the South African bonsai
community develops these skills so that our wonderful trees can be displayed
at an international level.
Carl is married and has a PhD degree in Botany from the University of Cape Town.
view Carl Morrow gallery :: contact: morrow@botzoo.uct.ac.za