About Tree Makers
MAKING AUSTRALIAN BONSAI
TreeMakers is the studio and practice of bonsai professional Hugh R. Grant, located in the upper Blue Mountains of New South Wales, Australia. TreeMakers specialises in Australian Native trees and plants as bonsai subjects.
Tree Making is an inquiry into the Australian landscape. With designs based in sustainable bonsai practices, our work explores forms from the Australian landscape. The work is informed by quintessential native living structures that represent both culture and nature. We seek to create a bridge of accessibility to Australian bonsai as an art form.
WHAT WE OFFER
TreeMakers is a professional garden, nursery, creative studio, and store. We are at the forefront of deciphering and creating techniques for new Australian native species as well as informing how to best cultivate non-native species in the Australian climate. In our nursery, we develop a new age of bonsai material primarily sourced as native yamadori (landscape sources trees) and make these available to customers and students. We offer a range of trees from raw-design-ready material, specimens in production, to refined, highly-executed bonsai specimens.
Learn more about our services at the links below. TreeMakers offers opportunities for all skill levels, from absolute beginners to practitioners with decades of experience.
Visit us
Tree Makers is a working full service bonsai garden. We are open via appointment for garden tours or visits, and to shop for products.
About Hugh
Bonsai began for Hugh at the young age of 11 years old. He was immediately drawn to the art form after seeing a segment on television. Naturally, Hugh acquired his first tree soon after.
As a teenager, Hugh spent much of his time learning to collect trees to make Bonsai. This early fascination and what would later be described as an empathy for the aesthetic beauty of trees, led to the discovery of a skillset that would later become an intuitive backbone of his knowledge and creativity in his practice.
Studying Fine Arts at the University of Newcastle from 2013-2016, Hugh began to understand Bonsai as more than an interest, taking on the role of a lifestyle. The artistic focus of his bachelor’s degree allowed him to dive into the creative exploration needed to develop a language around the visual arts that has carried into his practice today.
In 2016, Hugh furthered his bonsai studies through an internship with the renowned bonsai professional Ryan Neil of Bonsai Mirai in Oregon, USA. Ryans's teaching, and ongoing mentorship, have led to Hugh developing an understanding of bonsai as interpreted in the Western world. While it is traditionally an ancient practice of the Eastern world, modernity has witnessed an expansion of the art form as a practice adapted and applied to native species and cultures. Therefore, Hugh’s emphasis on native Australian bonsai comes from interpreting the natural world as he has always known it, yet through the lens of an ancient art form.
Hugh has been pursuing Bonsai as a profession in Australia since 2016. Although only a humble operation at current times, The TreeMakers Garden and studio has visions to be a world-class facility and bonsai studio that will be representative of Australia as a country, ecosystem, and culture.