Does bonsai styling need to be forward-looking?
"A good bonsai work usually takes 5-10 years to cultivate, and during this period it must be cared for every day. For example, in summer it needs watering once in the morning and once in the evening, and according to its growth conditions, it also needs repotting, branch pruning and styling, weeding, pest removal, and so on." This is the experience-based advice of Wang Xin, a bonsai art master in Zhejiang Province.
It is precisely because bonsai cultivation takes several years that its style and styling must be forward-looking, so as to avoid the situation of painstakingly growing it for nearly 10 years only to find in the end that it has already become outdated.
In addition, it also requires an individual to have a good artistic level and maintenance level. During the growth process of the bonsai, one must rely on spatial imagination to accurately analyze and judge the growth of the branches, and then process and style them according to the branch layout.
Another view, however, is that bonsai styling does not need this kind of forward-looking quality. If there is such forward-looking quality, bonsai styling can easily enter the dead end of formulaic and mechanical work. The styling in an individual's mind is limited, and it is impossible to have the same uncanny workmanship and ever-changing forms as nature.
Before creating a painting, painters all go to nature to sketch from life, which is to seek inspiration from nature and look for different compositions and forms, so as to achieve an unexpectedly natural artistic effect.
If this kind of forward-looking quality is used to shape it, it is no different from targeted cultivation, and the final artistic effect of the work is bound to fall into the trap of artificiality and patternization.
Before styling a bonsai, the material should be allowed to grow freely and produce ever-changing shapes, and then be shaped according to its talent, so as to obtain unexpected and highly varied artistic effects.