The 30th annual MABS Spring Festival will commence Friday evening, April 19, and will continue through Sunday afternoon, April 21, at our family-friendly location: the Holiday Inn Harrisburg-Hershey hotel in PA,. Renowned international professional bonsai artists will present lecture/demonstrations, workshops, and critiques of bonsai. Registrants will have weekend-long opportunities to observe and spend time with the artists at breakout sessions between demonstrations, and to view the MABS member clubs’ Bonsai Exhibit and the Professional Invitational Artists' Bonsai Exhibit. In addition, bonsai vendors will be on site offering a large selection of bonsai, bonsai-related plants, containers, tools, books and other supplies.

The hospitality area will be in the Majestic Foyer. To welcome all registrants, complimentary snacks and beverages will be provided, starting at 6:30 p.m. Friday evening and again after the lecture/demonstration. The Festival’s opening lecture/demonstration, starts at 8:00 p.m., and will be given by one of the featured guest bonsai artists. Each bonsai creation will be raffled following the completion of styling by its respective artist. This year will also feature the MABS regional runoff for A.B.S- supported New Talent Competition. It will take place on Friday, 8 am–5 pm. Registrants are welcome to observe these emerging artists working on their contest entries.

Festival Summary

Lecture/Demonstrations (Fri.-Sun.)
****Workshops (Fri. pm)****
Masterpiece Bonsai Exhibit - Expanded Display Area (Sat. - Sun.)
Professional Invitational Bonsai Exhibit (Fri. - Sun.)
Bonsai Critiques( Sat.)
Raffles of Demo Material (Sat. - Sun.)
Silent Auctions (Sat.)
Banquet & Bonsai Auction (Sat)
Large Bonsai Vending Area (Fri. - Sun.)

Minoru Akiyama - Minoru, age 33, is a second generation bonsai artist from Nirasaki in Yamanashi Prefecture.  After graduating from high school, Minoru apprenticed for six years under Kunio Kobayashi at Shunkaen.  After completing his apprenticeship in 2003, Minoru quickly established himself as a rising star in the Japanese Bonsai community.  At age 29, he was the youngest person ever to win the Prime Minister’s award at the Sakafu exhibition, the highest accolade for a professional bonsai artist.  He won this award again in 2011, both times using junipers collected by his father, a renowned yamadori collector.  He has won many other awards at Sakafu and won the top prize at Kojuten, the professional Satsuki exhibition.  Well versed in all species of trees, he specializes in Junipers, Taxus, Prunus, Azalea and White Pines.

     On Friday afternoon, Mr. Akiyama will conduct a “bring your own tree” workshop.  Be sure to bring something interesting so you can get the most out of his design and technical ideas.  On Saturday, he will present a lecture/demo on a large San Jose Juniper.  On Sunday morning, using materials provided by MABS members, he will conduct at lecture/demo on Keido, the art of exhibiting bonsai.

Peter Warren, from the United Kingdom, age 34, grew up in the North Yorkshire, UK countryside and studied Astrophysics at Leicester University.  He became captivated with bonsai on a recreational trip to Japan.  He did a five-year apprenticeship with Kunio Kobayashi at Shunkaen in Tokyo, Japan.  Minoru Akiyama was still an apprentice at Shunkaen at the time and was a massively influential figure in Peter’s education.  Peter returned to the UK and opened his own studio, Saruyama (literally: “monkey mountain”), dedicating himself to spreading knowledge of bonsai in the west.  He has been featured demonstrator at a number of European and American conventions and returns to Japan several times a year to polish up his skills and to repay his debt to Mr. Kobayashi.  He favors an elegant and more classical style of tree and takes a pragmatic approach to bonsai design and cultivation, preferring to draw out the character of the tree rather than impose one upon it.  Equally happy working with deciduous trees and conifers, his favorite species include Junipers, Spruce, Rosemary and anything a little more unusual.

     On Friday afternoon, Peter will conduct a workshop using Pinus densiflora x nigra “Jane Kluis,” a fine, thick-trunked pine which buds back well.  Peter will conduct lecture/demonstrations on Saturday and Sunday, working on a collected American Larch and another tree to be selected.

Ryan Neil. Growing up on the western slope of the Rocky Mountains near Aspen Colorado, Ryan was inspired by the rustic, wild trees growing in the mountains.  The trees maintained a place in his imagination, leading him to begin bonsai study with Harold Sasaki in 1995.  After graduating from college in 2004, he spent six years as an apprentice for Masahiko Kimura in Saitama Prefecture, Japan, climbing up the ladder from the basics of watering to the point where he worked on Kimura’s most famous trees and helped to prepare for the annual Kokufu-ten exhibition in Tokyo.  He returned to the US in 2010, opening his own studio, International Bonsai Mira, in Oregon, where he teaches bonsai and specializes in working on collected western trees, especially Rocky Mountain Junipers.  He has traveled widely in the US and Europe, enticing bonsai aficionados with his detailed teaching of the finer points of bonsai along with his daring feats of branch bending.  MABS is delighted to have Ryan join us for MABS 2013.  

On Friday afternoon, he will conduct a workshop using collected American Larch (for sample photos, click here) .  With lecture/demonstrations on Friday evening and on Saturday, he will work on a wonderful Pitch Pine and on a collected Rocky Mountain Juniper, giving him the opportunity to communicate his understanding of the training techniques he uses to turn RMJ’s into fine bonsai.