Daily Painting Practice - First studio piece

Here is the still life arrangement for the final 16"x20" painting on canvas. I moved a few of the oranges. I think the flow of color works better than the first arrangement I had set up from Monday.
I have started the first weekly studio painting sort of alla prima. I jumped right into drawing with the paint brush onto the white background.
So far so good. The potted plant was well behaved and remained still. Unlike painting flowers. Flowers are like painting children they move with the light then droop just when you get to the interesting parts.

click on the picture to enlarge the image
The Lost Studio Still Life
16"x20"
oil on canvas

Unfortunately, this is as far as I got. The sad thing is this painting no longer exists. Not a very good start to my new plan of finishing a painting each week. I kept thinking ( I am convinced that thinking is something I should stay away from) "...the background needs to be darker." The next thing I knew I was up to my elbows in muddy paint. I got my dark back ground, but destroyed the life of the painting in the process. It now sits on the floor of the studio wiped out and gray. It was a criminal act ... the unintentional death of a painting.

Lesson of the week: Do your thinking ahead of time! Or call an artist-in-trouble hotline number and get HELP.