See-Paynton Smith Semaphore

         Welcome to the April A to Z Blog Challenge!  My theme this year is Block Printed Alphabet Squared, an alphabet of alphabets illustrated with relief block prints, which are something everyone should spend more time enjoying.  Join the A to Z crew here.

        Today’s first alphabet artist is Colin See-Paynton.  He’s done an amazing alphabet of birds, but in a cool twist, it isn’t the birds that are assigned by letter.  Instead, each letter of the alphabet 

stands for the collective noun for each species of bird.  (If you don’t know about collective nouns, here’s a prior post on them.  Plus, in case you’re missing the fantasy and folklore of past years, here’s a post on collective nouns for mythological creatures.)  Thus S is for a Sedge of Bitterns.  See-Paynton’s work is huge by wood engraving standards, and incredibly detailed, so I could have picked a number of favorites, but I’ve exercised admirable self-control and selected C for a Covert of Coots.  I especially love the way the water is transparent, allowing us to see coot feet and fish below, as well as sparkles in the depths, and dragonflies up above.

        Next I have two alphabets by Caroline Nuttall Smith.  One is all cars and motorcycles, and S is for Sunbeam.  I’ve chosen J for Jaguar as a second letter to share, because I like its style!  Smith likes putting words in her linoleum block prints, and she obviously really loves vehicles, too.  

While her second alphabet doesn’t have a theme, no fewer than 8 of the letters are represented by modes of transportation - and that’s not even counting S for Shoes!  I give you T for Tugboat as my favorite.  You can also see her Queen back at Q, and there will be one more at the end.

        Today’s final alphabet is so different that I wanted to share it even though it’s quite incomplete.  A Semaphore Alphabet by Lynn Hatzius consists of odd linocuts depicting puppet-like figures that have the head of something starting with each letter, and arms approximating the semaphore position for each letter.  A is therefore an Angel making the semaphore sign for A.  I found the S picture used as an illustration for a completely different book by Hatzius, but I’m pretty sure it must be reused from this alphabet.  So, S is for Squirrel, and its arms are in the correct semaphore position for S.  You’ll get a chance to see one more of these funny figures at the grand finale.

        Today’s moral is to remember that body language can be as eloquent as words written with letters.

        And also, slow and steady wins the race - at least if it’s a steeplechase, but probably not if its a sprint.

        So, what’s your favorite mode of transportation?

[Pictures: Sedge, Covert, wood engravings by Colin See-Paynton (Images from See-Paynton.co.uk);

Sunbeam, Jaguar, Shoes, Tugboat, linocuts by Caroline Nuttal Smith, c. 2017 (Images from Etsy shop cnuttalsmith);

Angel, Squirrel, linocuts by Lynn Hatzius from A Semaphore Alphabet, 2002 (Images from Books on Books and lynnhatzius.com).]