After 50 years in the bonsai world, it’s fair to assume a fairly thick address book! Here, we’ve asked a small number of Dan’s friends and associates to say a few words or share memories.
Dilly Upton
“I have known Dan for some 30 years—from a distance with his Chinese whiskers in the 1990s, to the last 23 as a very good friend, patient teacher and a generous host not only to me but my family too.
To me he is a Maestro, for his tree creations and Esoteric pots and the whole bonsai aesthetic. Even now in his 80s Dan is creating the most unique and stunning pots and glazes sought after by bonsai pot aficionados for their own beauty as well as for practical use.
Dan is a man of many talents : Photographer, artist, ceramicist, exhibition organiser, author, gardener, cook, and more. He makes a success of virtually everything he puts his hand to, with such devotion to what he feels is right. This was borne out when I got to know him even better in A.B.B.A (Assn of British Bonsai Artists) and admired his ambition and determination in organising the exhibitions that followed, their success was totally down to his dedication and commitment. Dan is the only man I know who could fall asleep in the middle of a meal out (image attached) but he could be forgiven as the organiser of the events in Bath he put his all into those shows.
The above is enabled by his patient and loving wife Cecilia, who joins him in being a warm and caring host whose company I really enjoy. I have so many happy memories of times shared with them both.
On the lighter side, I see him also as a joker, a tease with a wicked sense of humour much like a naughty boy, one who still loves to dress up and act daft and that is endearing and likeable, but mainly I look up to and admire him for his will to do things, no matter the odds—Dan is definitely THE man to have as a friend!”
Dilly or Dills as he calls me!
“‘Inspirational’ is how I would describe Dan.
He has always time for amateur enthusiasts and no matter how knowledgable you may think you are I can assure you he will be able to give you advice and a new perspective.
A great Master of his art..”
— Robin Bennion
John Trott - Mendip Bonsai Studio
Having known Dan for over 40 years or so, I feel that I understand what he is all about (!) and apart from being a good personal friend, he has been been an inspiration to my own bonsai life, in both my amateur and professional career. His knowledge of bonsai and ceramics developed almost hand in hand.
Both of us started in the late Sixties, but meeting Dan over a decade later, gave me the confidence and inspiration to expand my own bonsai vision. Dan as an educational person passes on his knowledge of bonsai very well.
The pot making side of his life together with his wife, ‘Ci’, has made their pots some of the most sought after in not just the UK, but worldwide. His pot making is not just about having the inspiration, but to combine true innovation into the ‘Barton’s’ pots - remember, he is also an accomplished painter on the canvas!
Myself, having probably the largest collection of of their pots assembled, always gave Dan the hope that I would put on a display at Chelsea or another top RHS show with all the bonsai on display in his pots. I came close one year at Chelsea with 9 out of 11 in a ‘Dansai’ pot. I still have great memories of a trip to Japan in 2006 with him and others, where he had us all in ‘stiches’.
Keep up the good work Dan
Peter Brown
A WORD ABOUT DAN THE MAN!
I must have first met Dan in 1977 or ’78. He was doing a bonsai demonstration at one of the earliest bonsai shows in the UK organised by Harry Tomlinson in Nottingham. I was impressed, not only by the quality of the bonsai in the exhibition, but by Dan’s amazing conversion of nondescript juvenile plant material into an artistic representation of a mature tree. I blame both these aficionados for my addiction to the subject. This introduction was timely, because not long afterwards we moved to Bristol, and temporary NHS accommodation was no place to keep bonsai – but Dan, forever helpful and accommodating, generously offered to take my motley starter trees, without him once saying “why bother with this rubbish?” In fact, both Dan and his wife Ci, have over the subsequent decades been wonderful hospitable friends. Dan has been an excellent mentor and explainer of the finer points of the aesthetics of bonsai, never mind the great collection of his unique pots that I have now accumulated. But we still await the book he has written on the subject to be published – come on Dan!
Peter Brown 31.8.21
Photo: At the Bonsai convention in Hawaii in 1990 with the ‘big wigs’ of the Nippon Bonsai association
Oliver Kent
I first met Dan around 1973 when my art teacher persuaded me to join a ceramics evening class at the Polytechnic in Queen’s Road in Clifton. I was 17. Dan was there making female figure/jars, a charismatic figure with wild hair and an even wilder moustache, full of enthusiasm for clay and making stuff. That and telling mischievous stories!
He has teased me frequently since about the teenage boy excited by Pop Art making wobbly clay Coca-Cola cans. Dan was then teaching at Bower Ashton and we rubbed shoulders from time to time during my time there doing a Ceramics degree.
Some years later, I too became a member of the faculty staff teaching Ceramics and running adult education classes at Queen’s Road. Dan meanwhile had become more and more serious about his ceramics and about bonsai and it was only a question of time before he joined one of my groups.
We have been friends ever since, swopping ideas and glaze recipes, telling stories and appreciating Acers – my trees are much more prosaic and garden bound than his magnificent specimens.
Tanya Martin - random memories…
I met Dan in the Queen’s Road Ceramic course in the Autumn 2017, after about two sessions he knew everybody and one of the first things he asked me after being introduced was: ‘Do you want a Japanese Acer seedling, I have loads?’ - the next time he arrived with 4 or 5 healthy trees – like Santa, and distributed them to those of us who wanted one, mentioning that all had been made by air layering. I now have two beautiful ‘bonsai runaways’ in the garden from Dan.
I also have dozens of little pots with miniature irises and plants Dan uses as accent plants when displaying bonsai, which he gave me every time I’d visit him and Cecilia.
His kindness is breath-taking: I remember trying to burnish a pot with a tea spoon (rubbing the pot with smooth object to compact the clay surface) and not doing very well. Suddenly, and quietly, a hand appears from the side and puts a smooth pebble by my side: “Try this”, said Dan - the pebble worked wonders, I now use it every day.
After complimenting him on his lovely Japanese potter’s stamp, he asked: ‘Would you like one too? He then took my sketch and ordered it for me from one of his friends.
I remember him inviting me to come for a bit of lunch with other 4-5 fellow potters. We arrived for a garden tour and saw the table set by Cecilia, with oriental dishes, cups, chopsticks. ‘A bit of lunch’ turned out to be a full size opulent Chinese banquet, with many dishes coming from the kitchen cooked by Dan.
His ceramic studio at The Acers is an envy to every potter we know, and the cleanest and the tidiest potter’s studio in the world despite the fact there is no running water! Plus it has a dedicated place for professionally photographing pots as soon as they have been fired.
Chase Rosade
At 86 years old, I cannot remember the exact first time I met Dan & Ci, but it had to be a Bonsai thing or something going on in the UK. As I remember it was with Harry Tomlinson. We were on some type of Bonsai gig and stopped at the house with an invitation to have something to eat, as always a drink, and looking and talking trees.
It was about 25+ years ago that Dan was on a lecture trip to the United States, he stayed at our house for a number of days and did the most Beautiful ink drawing of one of Solis’s grandchildren. There were some very memorable Bonsai meetings where we all did a lot of drinking and where Dan did his thing!!
As for Pots some of the my most priceless are ones Dan made with the help of Ci. Thinking about Pots, the ones he made for Pius Notter, it was like Christmas opening the boxes and looking at those wonderful wonderful pots. If the gods are with me I would love to do nothing more than take a trip to his home have a drink, look at pots and tell stories. I am sorry that Soli is not able to partake in this little adventure, she would love to throw her arms around Dan and Ci again.