A study of a sailboat in dry dock at Port Townsend, Washington — the Pacific Northwest harbor town on the Quimper Peninsula whose working boatyard has supplied subject matter for several prints in Spitzack's 2025 series. The title "Amazing Grace" identifies the vessel itself, treating the boat as portrait subject rather than the harbor as scene. Dry dock orientation lifts the hull above waterline, exposing keel, rudder, and rigging in ways that printmakers favor for the geometric clarity it offers — a structure of curves and verticals that translates directly to woodblock line. Such subjects sit within the [meisho-e](/glossary/meisho-e) (famous places) tradition broadly construed, here adapted to a Pacific Northwest sense of place. Spitzack's repeated returns to Port Townsend boatyards across multiple 2025 prints (Pacific Rose, Summer Palace) form a thematic series in the manner of Hokusai's Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, where a single locale yields successive images. The American mokuhanga movement frequently localizes the medium this way.
Mokuhanga (Japanese woodblock)
Woodblock print
Hansen, yoru
1926
Color woodblock print
1915
Color woodblock print
Hansen, asa
1926
Color woodblock print
amazing grace 2025 dry dock sailboat sail boat rigging port townsend port washington wa woodcut woodblock print printmaking printmaker charles spitzack artist artwork contemporary lino linocut washi seattle was created by Charles Spitzack.
amazing grace 2025 dry dock sailboat sail boat rigging port townsend port washington wa woodcut woodblock print printmaking printmaker charles spitzack artist artwork contemporary lino linocut washi seattle depicts boats & ships.