Bonsai inspiration during Winter

Now we are getting into the cold months, the majority of bonsai are shutting down and going dormant until spring. This means there is less work to be done on the bonsai, and just simply monitored for watering to keep them just moist. I like to use this time to have a good think about my trees, and begin to formulate and plan the styling of trees that currently do not have any particular direction. This is not always easy, trying to envisage the style of a tree has been one of the hardest tasks I have found in this hobby. It requires sound knowledge of bonsai, horticultural expertise, and also a good degree of creativity. A method I have found particularly useful in helping this process, is the collection of inspiration. By this I mean both natural trees and finished bonsai. Whenever I go for a walk out in the country I am constantly on the look out for interesting trees, and when I find them I always have my camera ready to capture them. These photos can then be kept in a special folder on my computer and used to give me ideas on how to style some of my trees. During winter, this works even better for deciduous species, because they are devoid of leaves. This means you can really see the structure of the branching. As well as taking inspiration from naturally occurring trees, an important source of ideas comes from looking at as many bonsai as you can. This is where the internet plays a huge role. You can easily, by a couple of clicks, find many thousands of images of other people’s bonsai they are displaying on the internet. I find this very useful to look at, especially when you can search for a specific species and see examples of them. I regularly look at the galleries of as many bonsai artists as I can, and seeing this high level of bonsai really helps to see what can be achieved. Indeed, it has been said before, that an artist must first be able to mimic a master before they can become a master themselves. So by drawing ideas from other people's work, you are improving your skills in the hobby. Once you have done this enough, your own ideas and creativity will come to you a lot easier.