Nydam Nursery

         Welcome to the April A to Z Blog Challenge!  My theme this year is Relief Printed Alphabet Squared, an alphabet of alphabets illustrated with relief block prints.  Check here for the master list of participating blogs.

        Well, obviously given my predilections, I myself have done block printed alphabets of my own, and obviously I was going to feature them, so today is the day for the three block 

printed alphabets of Anne E.G. Nydam.  The first one I completed is botanical, and the N is Nasturtium.  I love the shape of nasturtium leaves and the shape of the flowers, but

what I really love is their fiery colors, so I’ll be honest: this is one of those few cases where color might really be better than black and white.  (Go back and enjoy Pomeroy’s nasturtiums at D!)  My favorites in this alphabet are probably P (Poppy) and T (Thistle) because they’ve got some interesting texture.  Although some of the illustrations in this alphabet are wood block prints, all three of these are rubber block prints.  The whole alphabet is available as a poster, which you can see here.  One other note about this alphabet is that for some of the letters I used the Latin (scientific) names of plants instead of English.  So this is actually a bilingual alphabet of sorts.

        The second Nydam alphabet is animals, and N is for Nautilus.  The animal alphabet has a poster version, too, and there is also a book version called Amazing, 

Beguiling, Curious, which includes fun scientific facts about each creature, as well as questions to get young scientists (and artists) thinking about what they observe.  (Did you know that a nautilus can have up to ninety tentacles?)  I’m having a hard time selecting a favorite, and you can see the whole thing on the poster here, so for today I’ve chosen to highlight the very first one of these animals I ever carved, and the last.  Those are R for Rhinoceros and V for Vicuña, spanning a 13 year spread.

        Then the third Nydam alphabet collects Beasts of the Realms of Imagination, which was the subject of my A to Z Blog Challenge in 2019.  The N is represented by Ninki Nanka, which you can learn all about here.  Once again it’s not easy for me to pick favorites because these are all my beloved babies!  But to exercise discipline and pick just one I think I’ll go with the Hercinia at H (and you can learn more about it here).  These animals are all part of an alphabet book that was not aimed at children at all (although children do seem to enjoy it).

        But enough about me, let’s get back in the Nursery with The Nursery Present of 1830.  N is for Nest, and I give you also C for Coach (because nowadays you’d get C for car instead), and F for Fruit (which is a particularly attractive little picture).  The painting job in this book is of considerably higher quality than most - actually an enhancement rather than a defect.

       Today’s bonus is Antler, Bear, Canoe: A Northwoods Alphabet Year by Betsy Bowen.  You can see B, D, Q, and X in prior posts.  N is for Northern Lights, but I don’t think that one works as well as some others in a wood block print, so I’ve also shared L for Loon.

         The moral for N is Never let the truth get in the way of the truth!  In other words, sometimes fictional stories are more true than the “reality” we think we know.  And sometimes looking at something in a new way can reveal fresh truths.

        And also, go check out my books!  You or a child you know might enjoy one!  (By the way, while I’m shamefully plugging my own alphabets, all of the originals of the block prints that illustrate my books were made in limited editions for sale, and you can still find many of them on my web site.  Nasturtium and poppy are available; thistle is sold out.  Vicuña is available, nautilus and 

rhino are sold out.  Ninki Nanka is available; hercinia is sold out.)

        So, have you ever seen the northern or southern lights?

[Pictures: Nasturtium, Poppy, Thistle, rubber block prints by AEGN, 2006, 1997;

Nautilus, Rhinoceros, Vicuña, rubber block prints by AEGN from Amazing, Beguiling, Curious, 2010;

Ninki Nanka, Hercinia, rubber block prints by AEGN from On the Virtues of Beasts of the Realms of Imagination, 2019;

Nest, Coach, Fruit, hand-colored wood block prints from The Nursery Present, 1830 (Images from University of California);

Northern lights, Loon, watercolored wood block prints by Betsy Bowen from Antler, Bear, Canoe: a Northwoods Alphabet, 1991.]