Still Life painting

I purchased a couple of Capsicum peppers or "bell peppers" in the shop recently and set them up under a lamp to give them some good lighting with shadows. I wanted to have some brilliant colours in this small piece (6"x8") size. I have found I do a much better job of painting when I can paint the "real" thing instead of using a photo. But I still use photos as reference material. I had to paint this small piece relatively in one short painting session as the peppers were starting to go "off" the next day as I noticed they were beginning to wrinkle and turn brown in areas. But I was pleased with the result and this is a nice cheery painting.
Also, for those artists who visit my other site http:www.oil-painting-for-beginners.com
I have decided to open the site for other artists to enter information to help keep the site informative and alive and growing. This will definently improve the site and give it more valuable information if I'm not the only artist entering information to help people learn. There are a number of pages that request information from viewers including the gallery menu button which I am opening up as a "Artist Directory" for other artists to have their website or blog links listed in that area. This will be good for the artists too as it will give them another link for their site to improve their traffic with. I am not the "end-all, be-all" authority to learning how to paint with oils and would like other artists to have their say about this topic whether it be what paints are the best to helping with critiquing new artists paintings. If you have any further suggestions on how the website could be improved please leave a comment or email me through the contact me button on the site. Hope everyone has a great Christmas! And happy New Year!