Are you stuck in a rut and dont know what to do about it? I've noticed recently a few people asking how they might improve their skills. I've experienced this myself a few times over the last five years, I've felt uninspired, and a bit fed up of not improving despite trying over and over. It seems that practicing isn't enough, probably because it's too easy to just keep making the same mistakes over and over again. Perhaps not mistakes exactly, just lacking the skills to perform on canvas the way you want to. That's why practice practice practice doesn't always work on its own. I knew I wasn't improving. But worse than that, I was slipping back, my trees were worse than when I first started which led me to take a long break. I found that watching other painters other than Bob Ross rekindled my interest so I came back with a couple more Bob paintings, a couple of improvements and a couple of slip backs, so not much difference really. Then I had an attitude change. I tried painting a glass vase, something I thought I'd never be able to do. I just plonked a few flowers in my favourite vase and had a go. It's not a brilliant glass vase but not bad for a first attempt. Then I painted a wicker basket, something else I thought I'd never be able to do. Again, not the best basket in the world but at least you can tell its a basket. Then the abstract event, something that never interested me because I never understood it before. So if you feel stuck, deflated, or uninspired, look to your state of mind and change your thought process, expand your horizons and get back on track. I hope this helps you guys who are looking for answers. If anyone else has had similar issues and overcome them, please share it here. Happy painting everybody.