WINTER BRANCHES

It is now twelve months and two weeks since I returned home from three months studying at the Sogetsu Headquarters in Tokyo. After all this time I want again to thank the many people who offered friendship to me during that time. 


Over the last couple of weeks it has been really quite wintry here in Victoria. The exotic (northern hemisphere) deciduous trees have lost their leaves revealing the beauty of their bare branches. Their surface textures are the subject of this ikebana in a shallow trough. I cut some small apple branches into short lengths and braced them across the vessel in uneven groups so that their bark and their knobbly growth points are featured. A single camellia provides a colour and textural contrast.

In this view the surfaces of the stems and the spaces between the groups are more evident.

Below is a second work in which I have used the stems to create a design of lines and spaces.

I repositioned the stems and have added a white camellia in the space created. 

Lately I have noticed the earliest of the winter flowering wattle trees coming into bloom, spectacular sights of gold. I plan to use some next week.

Greetings from Christopher

14th July (vive la France!)