This photo is in a retirement home in Wisconsin that I frequent. My mother lives there. The complex is so huge that I often forget which hallway it is on, but when I do find it I stand in front of it as if viewing a painting in a museum.
There is much going on here.
I don’t often “style” large trees seen in parks or in the wild, preferring to observe. But let’s try to style this one as if it were a bonsai. Give it a few tweaks.
First, an assessment. There are large branches up top, which in bonsai we often consider to be a problem. Usually we want our largest branches to be low, but this tree has skinny little branches down low. The tree’s shape is a circle, with only subtle asymmetry. And it has a broken, open crown.
If it were small, what would we do to improve it as a bonsai? Would we keep any of the “non-bonsai” branches, for flavor? To make it look more natural? Or would we cut off all offending branches.
Let’s try a few options.
For starters here the lower, smaller branches have been removed. No other changes made. How does this feel? The lowest branches are still not the thickest, but they are not wispy either. Where they come off the trunk feels about right. The trunk has a more substantial feel now as well. If this were a bonsai this wouldn’t be the worst first move.
The crown in the first photo is ragged. That’s a negative word, and in truth I rather like the multiple canopies. When leaders have complexity and ramifications like in the first photo, it can work. With simple branches it might be less successful. But here’s the top without the multiple canopies, as an option.
Let’s get a bit wild with this next one. Which will test my photo editing skills.
If you wanted a more dilapidated tree, this might be the direction. Taking the multiple canopy idea to a clearer conclusion. The low branch on the left is removed to give a more asymmetrical form. The sky is also considerably more moody.
So on your winter walks you might try a mental snapshot of a tree, and remove a few branches. Or take a real snapshot and play with digital whiteout options as if it were a bonsai.