"No skills required" painting party: Team-building & friendship experience! Includes materials and light refreshments. Open to all adults. Payment is needed at registration and includes all materials. Register Here About Valerie Unruh Fine Art Portraits, Landscapes, and Still Life Valerie Unruh began her journey of being an artist when she was a young teenager.  She started out with oils, moved to pen and ink, included some wood burning along the way, and met up with graphite and colored pencils in her early twenties.  She is now an artist who uses many mediums to render what the subject requires.  She primarily works with acrylics, but occasionally paints with oil.  She is predominately a self-taught artist but has also learned from numerous professional artists. In 2021, Valerie completed 9 murals for the City of Collinsville.  Eight of those murals are on utility boxes along Main Street in Collinsville, OK.  One mural is of a large butterfly on a garage door in their City Plaza. Valerie is also an instructor of fine art.  She believes that all things are created uniquely.  As she instructs others, she notices that each individual sees things differently.  We can all be drawing the same subject, but each person’s rendition is totally different.  Oh, we all have those artists whose work we so admire.  We try to do exactly how they instruct and it never turns out the same. She allows each individual to create a piece how they see it and not how she sees it. One of her favorite quotes by Paul Gardner is ~ A painting is never finished – it simply stops in interesting places.  She was born and raised in Ulysses, Kansas.  She now resides in Claremore, Oklahoma.  She has taught classes for Elder Care in Bartlesville since 2009.  She is a past art show judge for the Verdigris Valley Art Exhibit in Independence, KS.  She has judged several student art shows in the area.  She is a past board member of the Bartlesville Art Association.  She owns The Artist’s Retreat in Collinsville, OK where she teaches classes to all ages.   Painting parties are fabulous team-building experiences. - Angie Thompson, Development Director