IN A SHALLOW VESSEL WITHOUT A KENZAN

 

In this part of the world, it is most distinctly winter in spite of the bright sunshine seen in the photograph below

The large expance of white water is an indication of the strong prevailing winds from the south west, bringing cold weather at this time of year.

A couple of days ago, the bright early morning sunshine created a rainbow in the misty rain. Because the sun was low, the rainbow stretched from horizon to horizon. Unfortunately, I could not capture that in this photo.

Also, during last week, Laurie and I were delighted to come across this male Gang-gang cockatoo feeding on a shrub in a neighbours front garden. These are delightful parrots. I am always amazed that they are so unperturbed by the presence of humans, looking at them and taking photographs at close range.

Last Monday, the Victorian branch of the Sogetsu school held workshop, which was led by Emily Karanikolopoulos. The subject of the workshop was an arrangement in a suiban without a Kenzan. This style of arrangement shifts the focal point of the botanical materials to higher in the arrangement. It also emphasises the space in the suiban, as well as the surface of the water.

I was not able to attend the workshop because my right arm is recently out of plaster and still quite weak. This means that I cannot manipulate materials satisfactorily. At present, I am also unable to drive. I decided that although I could not attend the meeting, I would try to make a small version of the arrangement. It is one of my favourite exercises and can look simple and elegant. It is particularly good exercise with winter branches. 

I had pruned some small branches from my Japanese flowering quince Chaenomeles bush which I decided to use in a shallow bowl-shaped vessel. I hadn't stopped to think that this shallow bowl made the exercise all the harder because it has no walls to help stabilise the materials. However, I persisted and I was happy with the final result. The two single-red Camellia flowers are quite complimentary to the Japanese flowering quince branches. I am hoping over the next few weeks that these branches will develop flowers if I keep them in water. 

This is how the base of the stems looked sitting within the shallow bowl, made by the Victorian ceramicist, Phil Elson.

I made an additional arrangement that was inspired by a single piece of grey bark, which I noticed as we were walking in the nearby park, a couple of days ago. The inside of this bark is a lovely warm nutty brown colour. For a focal point I have used a single stem of ornamental grape vine with three small pink leaves. I have used the vase made by, and given to me by Janet Keefe, a ceramicist and long-term Ikebana practitioner when I was in Canada recently.

Greetings from Christopher
29th June 2025