Time is of the Essence Painting

I saw a photo of this old pepper and It intrigued me from a shadow and light perspective and I wanted to paint it for the challenge of the physical depiction. As I was painting it, I kept thinking about the correlation between time and ripeness, and also ones perception of these themes. For some reason, it is more intriguing to me to look at this painting of this aging pepper than it would be to view a plain smooth pepper. I hope that it raises a thought in the viewer and than one can appreciate the skill of depicting it this way. I love the way that oil deepens saturation as time goes on and the depth of pigment is really unmatched, so for this painting, I chose oil and have been pleased with that choice.