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