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California Suiseki Society 15th Annual Show

June 15, 2010 by Jonas Dupuich

The California Suiseki Society held its 15th Annual Show at the Lakeside Garden Center in Oakland, California on June 12-13, 2010. Typically members display stones new to their collections – this year President & Founder Felix Rivera encouraged members to display their very best stones. The result was a wonderful collection of close to 100 suiseki.

Most of the stones on display were “mountain stones” from Northern California. I was a bit surprised by this – either most engaging stones in California make good representations of mountains, or the mountain style speaks to members. A core of over a dozen are from the Bay Area – most of the rest are located across the country. Worldwide, the active membership is about 50.

I was also surprised by the diversity of rock geology. Northern California is clearly home to diverse collections of rock making it a great place for collecting.

Here’s a sampling of the suiseki on display. I’ll post more later this week.

Mountain & arch stone – Northern California

Mountain – Northern California

Mountain – Northern California

Near mountain – Northern California

Mountain – Northern California

Waterfall – Northern California

Distant mountain – Northern California

Waterfall – Northern California

Mountain – Northern California

Mountain – Northern California

Lake – Northern California

Mountain range – Northern California

Nearby mountain – Northern California

Island – Northern California

Island detail – Northern California

Mountain – Northern California

Plateau – Northern California

Waterfall – Northern California

Distant mountain – Northern California

Mountain – Northern California

Mountain – Northern California

Mountain – Northern California

Kinzan-seki – Northern California

Mountain – Northern California

Distant mountain with river – Northern California

Mountain – Northern California

Mountain range – Northern California

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Filed Under: Exhibits Tagged With: Suiseki

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Peter Tea says

    June 15, 2010 at 5:14 pm

    That island stone is amazing! Is the green part actually stone as well? If it is, that is one of the coolest stones I have ever seen.

  2. Heather says

    June 15, 2010 at 5:26 pm

    The green looks like moss, but yes, it’s a really lovely stone. Very very nice images and stones. Thanks for sharing these!

  3. Bruce winter says

    June 15, 2010 at 6:39 pm

    Highly unlikely the green is stone.

  4. Janet says

    June 15, 2010 at 7:38 pm

    Peter, The green part is a little bit of moss. When I see that suiseki, the moss looks for all the world like a copse of high-mountain white pine as viewed from a great distance, perhaps from the top of a nearby mountain.

    While the owner sees that stone as an island – it is not incumbent on the viewer to see it the same way. Many people do not specify a “style” when the show a stone, but leave that for the viewer to decide on his own.

    Jonas – the Japanese suiseki people have a saying that Mas translates roughly as “suiseki begins with the mountain, and ends with the mountain”. The way he has explained it to me is it that, for the beginner who is just training her eye and sensibility, the mountain stone – especially the interesting textures of the “near mountain” – is most accessible as a landscape image.

    Then, after many years of experience and study, you come all the way to the simplicity and depth of the “distant mountain”.

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