Page 32 - BSAM 2015 Q1

Master Genotti, Danilo Scursatone and the completed forest grouping of Pinus sylvestris at the World Congress BCI - IBS held in Saint Vincent (Aosta, Italy): “Art and teaching on the top of Europe” in 2008.
To assemble a forest that is credible and able to pro- vide the sensations described, it is useful for bonsai artist to visit the wild forest that he or she intends to copy or from which to draw inspiration. The views of the forest as seen from a distance and then upon entering, are important to consider in recreating the forest in miniature. As you immerse yourself in the forest, make note of all the little details typical to the environment and keep them in your mind, in order to have them at hand when styling your forest. Take photos make notes or drawings.
My teacher Giovanni Genotti, based on studies car- ried out on the forest style, observing them in the wild
and in practice, creating many bonsai forests, and who certainly is among the best in the world, proposes a method that is of interest, because mistakes in per- spective can be avoided resulting in a forest composi- tion with natural character.
Following is a summary of the presentation of- fered to participants during the demonstration held at the World Congress BCI - IBS held in Saint Vincent (Aosta, Italy): “Art and teaching on the top of Europe.”
Here we will go through the steps for styling a for- est of hornbeams that I made, inspired by the regions typical of Marche, an Italian province with a coast on the Adriatic Sea, that are colonized by small forests of Carpinus orientalis.
The forest according to the method of master Genotti
The trees that form the forest are almost always of the same species, and in odd number, and if arranged in groups, the groups are also in odd number.
In the forest, the focal points are different from those of a single bonsai, they are not arranged on a vertical plane (base, trunk, branches, apex) but on a horizontal plane that corresponds to the ground. The focal points and the essential perspective of depth, play a fundamental role.
The base (or nebari) of the trees must be placed in sight, even placing them at the top of small mounds of soil as in Figure 1.
By undulating the surface of the soil in a pot or slab which holds the forest, hills and valleys are created to enhance the perspective, favor the area for water- ing, and attract the eye to the raised areas from which emerge the base of the trees.
The “reading” of the forest is not made from the bottom to top but from left to right and results funda- mentally in three points that are located in the scalene triangle shown in Figure 2.
Draw lines that divide the container, usually a very shallow oval tray or a stone slab, into four quadrants. Choose one of the two rear quadrants, generally to the left, as point A, more or less close to the vertical center line and from it, make two non-symmetrical, converging lines from points A to B, and A to C, to
each of the two front quadrants.
So doing will form the scalene triangle, ABC.
Choose the area near point B, internally or externally to the scalene triangle ABC, to place the most inter- esting plants as the foundation of the composition, and repeat at point C. The area at point A of the sca- lene triangle is fixed and there, place small trees with branches directed mostly outwards.
Point A, the perspective connecting focal points B and C, is the beginning and end of the forest.
The model described above can be repeated several times. The other trees are positioned in an alternating manner along the lines forming the sides of the tri- angle so that the distances between them are unequal.
Position branches to provide unrestricted sight lines through the trees, not hiding or crossing other trunks.
Figure 1
A BC
Figure 2
Figure 3
32 | BCI | January/February/March 2015