AusBonsai

OK, I'll bite.

For me, the trunk does really interesting things, but the pot is completely out of balance with it, and the the two solid foliage masses seem only to be there because "that's what you do to bonsai" - they don't relate to the trunk either.

I think there's a very good bonsai in there, when you open out the foliage blobs into something finer and more nuanced that the birds can fly through, and potted into a smaller, softer-lined pot.

I'd have that trunk any day, but I can see why you don't like it. Native have a different visual rhythm to exotics. It's interesting when you said " a tree that has not been touched by human hands" - most Japanese and Australian exotic species bonsai (including mine by the way) don't come anywhere near that.

Will Fletcher has a particularly "natural" style that drives me nuts - it's exceptionally graceful, but looks quite random although there's an enormous amount of work gone into getting that. I've no idea how it's done, but it's worth a look to free up your thinking.

As regards the Melbourne native show, I was most impressed, but there were clearly some better resolved trees than others. The best, I think, looked completely "natural" while having had an enormous amount of work done on them over many years. Making your work look not artificial, stiff, predictable, or boring is the essence of bonsai to me, whether you use native or exotic species.

Each (species) to his own.

Gavin

I basically don't disagree with any of that.

G'day Mike,

Love the trunk and I reckon it is worth persisting with.

Have you considered leaning it over to the left? I've found it difficult to created separate pads of foliage with these leptospermum but I think if you were to open up the pads something like the foliage on my crude virt below you might be able to achieve a more natural image.

Hopefully you will keep posting updated on this one and your others

Regards,
Steven

Funny thing. I was wanting to reply but waiting for a time when I cold comment without distraction, but I see others have beat me to it. I have no doubt in your skills as a bonsai artist Mike. I have seen your other trees and your advice and respect your experience and ability to express your art. Gavin probably said all I was going to say but a lot better and Steves virt was along the lines I was thinking. I think it has more to do with how native material is used than wether they make good bonsai and was going to refer to Will Fletchers work too. It doesn't always make me feel comfortable as I am fairly new to the art and still have exoctic images influencing my eye, but I have seen many natives present very strong images. I hope one day to be able to style a tree with as much grace as yours or Wills.

Thanks for sharing your work.
Dan

Mike, I absolutely agree with you, it is also my own personal observation that the so called "japanese style" is simply, apart from a few extreme examples, the shapes, styles and silhouettes in which trees grow worldwide. I was always confused when people said that they were styling a tree in the Australian style or American style. Art is an ever evolving thing, and if you look back to bonsai of 50 years ago.. You can see that it was raw, it had much rougher structure to what is accepted as the norm nowadays... So we don't only have the basic styles to draw from when we look for bonsai inspiration, but we have a historical record in books from the past. I'm sure we can find a style appropriate to any environment if we look back through years and years of kokufu books.

Adam

Hi Mike.... If it were mine, I'd be inclined to go with something like this. But none of my trees fit within the box. I am always outside the box and see trees differently. Personally I'd lean towards the right virtual. For myself, going for walks every week in the national park where we live and seeing what nature continually produces rather than what man produces, it has turned my liking towards a different perspective than others.

I've only opened it up a touch. I think it looks better? and it's starting to get that aged look to the bark.

I really like this one. Nice work!

Hi Mike,
Much better. If it were mine, I would still thin out "just a bit" of the top canopy to the left. Great work
Cheers
Kirky

I think the best way forward for this tree is to just let it grow and keep exposing more and more of the branch structure from underneath. In other words, not to bother ''re-styling''.
As Murata says...the dignity of the years will accrue in the end. (Bare in mind that my camera shows it more narrow than it actually is)
Time for another thinning.....

Hi treeman,
Currently growing 2 of these myself from old nursery stock material - unfortunately mine do not have the movement in the trunk, or ramification in the branches, as well as yours.

The wide lip on the pot you're currently using, is doing your trunk no favours. It's too heavy & adding confusion to the overall scale. It may only be a temporary pot? - but your trunk looked much more dominant in your first 2015 pic, when the pot's rim was thinner.

Have you ever allowed this to flower?

A few adjustments and a repot

That's certainly evolving into a beautiful elegant tree, Mike!

Very nice in a way. If it was mine, I would lose the lower branch and turn it to a literati.

DK