Blue Willow Pitcher with Grapes and Oranges

July 12th, 2026

Here is a 7" x 5" oil painting I worked on this week. Pitchers are tricky and especially with a pattern. But I wanted to see if I could do a convincing painting of this small pitcher with the Blue Willow pattern. Of course I had to include some fruit and lighting that illuminated the fruit. Here is a look at the progression. 

After adding a very thin wash of oil paint to the primed linen board canvas, I started sketching using with a regular graphite pencil. Then began to add the lightest color of the pitcher and the dark blues in the pattern. 

Blending from very light bluish gray to dark blue I developed the pitcher form with gradient colors.

Next the block in values and colors of the grapes and the orange slices.

At various points in the process, I like to wait for areas to dry so that I can go back over details that I can't quite accomplish when the paint is very wet. At this point I wanted to let the fruit and pitcher dry so I began filling in the background and the blue cloth.

After a day, the paint in the first pass on the pitcher and orange slices were dry. I was able to go back and paint the pattern on the pitcher, along with adding more color and highlights. This is the finished piece, ready to to be posted on the Gallery page, varnished and framed.