Kathy Van Drie        1955 - 2008                                Kathy Van Drie was a local artist who lived in the Barrie area for over 30 years.  Her love of art started with  her early childhood in Woodbridge, but also came from this beautiful city.  Her desire was to capture everything from our beautiful lake shore to the wonderful old Victorian style homes and historical buildings and put them on canvas.
Kathy entered art in a rather round about way....  She had wanted to test her hand at woodworking in the early 1990's.  In 1994, she found a jigsaw at a garage sale for $5.00 and discovered the joy of woodworking.  After a year she decided to paint some of her wood creations (side tables, etc).  She attended a few folk art seminars and dabbled in folk art for a couple of years.  In 1998, a friend literally dragged her to an oil painting workshop at the Varga Studio in Bradford.  Little did she know, it would be there that her love and passion for painting would grow.
In 1999, Kathy took a few watercolour classes.  In the year 2000, as a millennium project, she designed, sketched and researched a Historical Walking Tour Calendar on the City of Barrie.  This consisted of 12 historical sites, as well as researching the history on each.  In 2005, Kathy had the honour of producing the cover and illustrations for the Innisfil historical Book "Farms of Innisfil".  Although she specialized in historical sites, she also took commisions for cottage, resorts, houses, people, pets, vintage vehicles, landscapes, etc.    She normally works in watercolour, pen and ink or oil and her summer passion was painting cottages and resorts.       Kathy was an active member of the Barrie Art Club, the Sandy Cove Art Club, and the Barrie Historical Association.  She worked at the Farmers Market at Barrie's City hall most Saturday mornings from 8:00 to 12:00.  Her work was on display in the Carriage House Frame Shop, Pine Cover Gallery, Victoria Village (the old RVH building), and Sandy Cove's Art & Craft shows.       As an artist, it was her goal to always paint from her heart, while aiming for ours.  Because of her love of Barrie and it's historical sites, her lifetime goal was to paint every beautiful historical site in Barrie and the surrounding area. It is with deep regret of the loss of, but also with fond memories of this wonderful, kind, loving woman, that this website will be maintained for Kathy's friends, fellow artists and family. Kathy will be truly missed by us all.                                                                    ~Barb Armstrong - Webmaster                                                                   barbara.armstrong@rogers.com