September 26, 2016 - Jonas Dupuich - Bonsai Display Presentation

We are pleased to announce Jonas Dupuich as our guest artist for the September 26th general meeting! Jonas will be conducting a presentation on bonsai display from 7:00pm to 9:30pm at the UW Center for Urban Horticulture. As usual, our meeting will be taking place in the main (NHS) hall and there will be plenty of free parking available. If you need directions, please click HERE.

Jonas Dupuich is a Northern California bonsai artist who began his bonsai journey over twenty years ago when he befriended Boon Manakitivipart. Boon is undoubtedly one of the most respected and accomplished bonsai teachers in America. The two encountered each other in 1993 while Jonas was working at the retail nursery his family owned in Alameda, CA. While the ins and outs of bonsai were unknown to Jonas at the time, he was familiar with basic horticulture, as plants had been a part of his life from a young age. He'd been surrounded by bonsai in his parents' garden before he was old enough to know what they were. By the winter of 1994, Jonas had joined a local club and was starting pines from seed with Boon based on a pair of articles in Bonsai Today magazine. Four years later he would become one of the five founding members of Bay Island Bonsai.

In addition to studying with Boon, Jonas has also worked with Japanese professionals Akio Kondo and Daisaku Nomoto, both of whom have won the Kokufu-Sho award, the most coveted prize in the bonsai world. In 2011, Jonas spent two months immersed in the world of Japanese bonsai at the famous Aichi-en nursery in Nagoya, run by fourth generation artist and grower Junichiro Tanaka. During that time, he worked on trees in Tanaka's collection and participated in various high-level exhibitions including GomangokuMeifu-tenTaikan-ten and Sakufu-ten.   

What began as hobby for Jonas has now grown into a full-time profession and he is establishing a name for himself as a purveyor of bonsai tools, supplies and growing media. His business, Bonsai Tonight, is also the name of his online blog, for which he is perhaps best known. Since launching the blog in 2009, Jonas has published over 700 articles on it, all of which are available for free. Bonsai Tonight is widely regarded as one of the best English language bonsai blogs, if not the best. Jonas releases new posts every Tuesday and Friday on a wide variety of topics including care, propagation, development, and styling and shares galleries of various shows in the US and Japan. According to Jonas, his "primary aim in bonsai is to help as many people as possible appreciate good bonsai" and Bonsai Tonight certainly lives up to this goal. To see some of Jonas's trees and read a few of his excellent articles, click HERE.

We look forward to seeing you on Monday September 26th at 7:00pm at the UW Center for Urban Horticulture! 

Jonas with a Japanese Black Pine he wired at Shimpukuji Temple in Okazaki

Mark Epping-Jordan