In part 1 I talked about our humble beginnings in Westfield and my art work during that time. While living in our rural cabin in the woods, I realized that there was nowhere to go to view and purchase the work of local artists all year long. A dream began to take root of opening a gallery to showcase not only my artwork, but that of other local and regional artists.

As the dream grew and began to take shape, I knew that it needed to be much more accessible than our cabin in the woods; both the location and the building itself. In the early 1980's we began the search for a home that would allow us to make that dream a reality.
Around the corner and up the road a few miles we viewed a home that Donald was quite taken with. It looked like it could have been transported from the homes in the area of New Hampshire where he grew up. A white Greek Revival home complete with tall white pines and 20 acres overlooking the Chautauqua Gorge. The location was as perfect as we could have hoped for, positioned right on the main road that traverses from Westfield to Mayville.
In 1983, shortly after our second son, Joseph, arrived, my dream opened in the formal parlor of the house.
There was such a need for artist representation that we quickly filled the parlor and added a second room of the house to the gallery. About 25 years ago Donald designed a gallery room to be built on to the two rooms that the gallery occupied which is the layout of the gallery to this day.

Those were very busy years for us. We were raising our two boys while both teaching school. The gallery kept us hopping! Today those boys are both in their 40's while Donald and I are both retired from teaching. Portage Hill Gallery is still going strong with the same mission as day one: To provide a place for people to view and buy local and regional artists' work year-round.

Retrospective: A Rural Artist's Journey will be opening on August 23, 2024 in the Octagon Gallery in Westfield New York.
Using artwork that Audrey has produced at each stage in life, the show will take the viewer on a journey through the evolution of her artwork, Audrey as a person, her family, and how Portage Hill Art Gallery came to be what it is today.

Artwork During "Act 2"

When we left our "back to the land" cabin more mediums and options became open to me. At the cabin we had no electricity or running water which limited my options to painting, block printing and textiles.

With the cabin's limitations removed, I began to pivot from the textiles and my treadle sewing machine to working with clay. I actually put away block printing until sometime in the past 20 years.

The new home and property allowed me to add studio spaces to the home and property over the years. In the garage I have a clay studio with all of the tools I could want for bringing my visions to life in clay. I have always used my love of nature surrounding me in all of my work. My clay pieces evolved to reflect that love by going beyond their basic creation to mixing my own, signature Lake Erie Glazes.

When the boys grew up and left home I converted their room into a painting and mixed media studio space and I have a similar area in our Lake Erie cottage.

My print making area shares space with the washer and dryer. I am truly blessed to have the spaces to choose from to create and express myself. Nearly every day I have art materials in my hands and I am creating.

The two pieces below, Ferns and Jack-In-The-Pulpit and Woods Sentinel were the first block prints that I had created in many years. When I had completed the blocks inspiration struck! I expanded from the block print to adding painting and then colored outside the lines onto the surrounding mat. This continues to be a strong theme in my painting and block prints to this day.

~Audrey