Best Front?

[Watto]

I get a bit nervous using the word "front" just in case Gavin reads this and goes crook at me, but here is the story.
This English elm was dug a few years ago on one of the Goulburn Bonsai Society digging extravaganza trips (I think Gavin got a special invite to that dig if my memory is working). The paddock was a cattle and horse paddock so the pickings were already "enhanced".
A few years later it was into a pot, luckily a round pot, and I cant decide which is the better viewing side, so I would appreciate your opinions. I have turned it around a few times and both sides have their positives. There are a couple of branches that are sticking up a bit, don't worry about them as they will be adjusted at the next wiring this autumn.

[Greg F]

I agree with your current choice of front Watto.

Greg

[greg27]

I prefer the second - that curve at the base really draws my eye up the tree.

[Alex_B]

I like the new choice of front (third image) that you have chosen it compliments that nice curve in the base of the trunk and also make the foilage look thicker since you don't have that sharper bit of wood sticking out the middle (sorry for lack of proper terminology, I'm still learning haha).

[Ryceman3]

The new front for me too I think Watto ...
I see the initial front kind of like this ...

Watto 1.jpg

And I think there is a bit of interest in the base (as circled) when viewed from the opposite side, and then the movement above that is a bit more like this for me ...

Watto 2.jpg

Just my

[Watto]

Thanks you all so much for your "votes" and more importantly the reasons behind your thoughts.
I went off my original because there is a big fat root that comes right at you, the reasoning about movement is more valid and reinforces the preference. Thanks again.

[Raging Bull]

Well for my worth I have a good scientific reason to have the last (leaning to the right) side the better view........ it just looks more "right", pleasing to the eye.

[MJL]

Hmmm ... my family thinks I’m mad as I tilt my head and turn my phone on different angles - trying to evaluate the photos.

I like round pots because I love 360 degree trees ... I get that we should have a front or preferred viewing angle but I also love it when a tree causes my to debate myself on the best ‘front’ ....

It took me a while but yep, I think the bottom photo is a slightly better front ... yet ... it seems to drift away from me - which doesn’t feel quite right... so, it make me want to turn the pot clockwise a tad. That said, I’m looking on a phone screen with no access to a bigger laptop....

I also your new front because It seems that the lowest branch may then be bent to create depth at the back and the front branches can be ben to welcome the viewer a bit more and also open up what looks like a potential Jin too.

If that’s all confusing / my apologies ...


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Watto]

Mark. you are correct in your observation on the trunk leaning slightly away from the viewer in the "new" front and that is because when the other side was the front I planted it so that it leaned slightly towards the viewer. It just needs an adjustment at the next repot.

[GavinG]

I'll go crook at you for lots of things Watto, but being "frontalist" is not one of them. It's been suggested, not by me, that our bonsai are three-dimensional, and they should be made so that there is pleasure in seeing them from many angles, and that viewing should take place over time, adding impressions from all around, to give a full and complex appreciation of the tree. It's a point of view that is sophisticated and refined.

Unfortunately I am somewhat shallow and hasty, and a tree that I have to walk around before it gives me scraps of satisfaction can drive me spare - sometimes it feels that there's nowhere, no angle, that the design of that tree is going to "come together" at all. My trees are in fact quite severely "frontalist", I think to their detriment. It's an issue for me.

As you were gentlemen.

Gavin