Bonsai Reimagined: An Artist’s Exploration

Ronald Ray Reekers

Bonsai has been part of the artist’s life for many years, both in his artistic work and as a practitioner of the craft. He has studied the art of bonsai with teachers in Southern California and in Japan, learning not only how trees are shaped, but how time, patience, observation, and thoughtful intervention become part of their character.

Those same ideas have increasingly found their way into his artwork.

The works in this exhibition represent his exploration of bonsai over the past two years through oil painting, mixed media, woodblock printing, and monoprint. Some works begin with a particular tree and remain closely connected to its individual character. Others move further from direct representation, using color, pattern, texture, and layered processes to explore the presence and energy he experiences when looking at bonsai.

The large oil paintings approach the trees almost as portraits. In the mixed-media works, he allows the image to move between representation and abstraction, building surfaces through drawing, printmaking, painting, stencils, and pastel. The woodblocks take this exploration in another direction. A carved image can be repeated, yet each impression can become something different when combined with individually created monoprint backgrounds and additional handwork.

The artist does not see these works simply as representations of bonsai. They are the result of two practices that have become deeply connected in his life: making art and working with Bonsai trees. Each has taught him to look more carefully, to respect what is already there, and to recognize that creating something meaningful is often less about imposing an idea than discovering what can emerge through the process.

Together, these works reflect an ongoing exploration of bonsai—not only as beautiful trees, but as living expressions of time, change, balance, and the human desire to create.