Page 70 - BSAM 2016 Q4

Top left; Natal Plum, Carissa macrocarpa, Walter Buck
Top right; Colorado Blue Spruce, Picea pungens, Will Kerns
Middle left; Tsukomo Cypress, Chamaecyparis psifera, Charlie and Judy Sisk
Bottom left; Blue Atlas Cedar, Cedrus atlantica ’Glauca,’ Mark Mills
Bottom right; Dwarf Scots Pine, Pinus sylvestris, Walter Buck
Facing Page: Top left; Colorado Blue Spruce, Picea pungens, Todd Schlafer
Facing Page: Top right; Ponderosa Pine, Pinus ponderosa, Larry Jackel
Facing Page: Middle; Rocky Mountain Juniper, Juniperus scopulorum, Todd Schlafer
Facing Page: Bottom left; Douglas Fir, Pseudotsuga menziesii, Todd Schlafer
Facing Page: Bottom right; Satsuki Azalea, Rhododendron indicum, Mark Mills
68 | BCI | October/November/December 2016
Visiting guest artist programs
Fourth, I believe that we have greatly benefited from our visiting guest artist programs. Generally, we attempt to bring three to four guest artists per year to our club. We ask each of them to present to our members at a regular monthly meeting, and we now purposefully avoid the traditional “demo” format in favor of a tree critique. Members bring one or more trees to the meeting, and our guest addresses as many as he or she can during a two-hour meeting, identify- ing opportunities and constraints a orded by a tree and suggesting a basic design direction for it. We nd that members learn much more from this process, and they take away observations that they can actually use on a given bonsai.
In addition, each time a guest bonsai artist visits, we also schedule an all-day workshop with him or her in which members can receive hands-on direction and assistance in styling one or more trees. Workshops are limited to no more than eight members, each of whom pay a nominal fee, and we also encourage new mem- bers, many of whom are novices, to attend as silent observers—another great way to learn.