Hanga
Illustration of a house with a blue roof and brown accents, surrounded by four tall palm trees, all behind a white picket fence. by Charles Spitzack — Japanese woodblock print

Illustration of a house with a blue roof and brown accents, surrounded by four tall palm trees, all behind a white picket fence.

by Charles Spitzack

Description

A frontal view of a single-family dwelling with a blue roof and brown trim, fronted by a white picket fence and flanked by four tall palm trees. The flat planes of color — roof, siding, fence pickets, palm fronds — read as discretely keyed blocks rather than blended tones, a separation consistent with traditional mokuhanga method, where each color area is carved on its own block and registered through kentō notches. The palms suggest a coastal or Southern California setting, while the picket fence introduces a vernacular Americana element, producing a tension between regional iconography and tropical foliage. The image treats the house and its yard as an almost diagrammatic motif rather than an observed scene. The print sits within Spitzack's wider engagement with American domestic and suburban subjects rendered through Japanese water-based woodblock methods, an exchange that has shaped contemporary Western mokuhanga practice.

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Illustration of a house with a blue roof and brown accents, surrounded by four tall palm trees, all behind a white picket fence. was created by Charles Spitzack.