The art of coming home
How Sarah Soule Webb traded her career for a paintbrush, built a following, and opened a gallery to champion other artists
By Liz BiggsPhotos by Kate Treick Photography
How does one leap from being the University of Alabama’s first female pole vaulter, to a ten-year career as a registered dietitian, to a gallery owner and revered artist with commissioned works hanging in NYC, Miami, the Mayo Clinic, Baptist Hospital, Apollo Global and the Four Seasons in Naples, Florida? Pensacola native Sarah Soule Webb’s vibrant energy, passion, courage, and talent make it seem easy to juggle being a mother of three while pivoting to open a downtown gallery. Her newest series, “Potential Energy,” opened November 5 at her new gallery on Palafox Place.
THE JOURNEY BEGINS
“I, as every child does, confidently stated that I was an artist at the age of 5. But it was never squashed out of me, as most people experience,” Webb said.
During her teenage years, she and her mother, Susan Soule, took art lessons at Pensacola State College with Joyce Bennick. Her parents encouraged her to obtain a degree with “reliable income,” so she followed her love of science, sports and health into a master’s degree in nutrition sciences at the University of Alabama.
“I am truly grateful for that path, as working around sickness and death every day created a constant grateful heart in me — for my health, family and life,” Webb added.
Throughout her career as a registered dietitian, she painted “on the side,” but it wasn’t until the emergence of social media that she noticed other artists using their talents to build careers as full-time artists. Up until then, galleries had the upper hand and were the gatekeepers between artists and their collectors, but she noticed on Instagram that the middleman could be cut out if you were brave enough.
“I realized that no one was going to sell my art, so I had to do it,” Webb explained. “As a Southern woman, I cringed at the thought of self-promotion, but my desire to make a living out of doing something I love was stronger. So, I ‘got over myself’ and put my work out there on social media. I turned the camera on myself and my family, allowing people to get to know us a little bit. I used humor and promoted others to offset the ick factor of self-promotion.”
Her art is inspired by growing up here in Pensacola and the natural beauty of the area.
“My babies were little at the time — a sweet but quite difficult season of life — and I painted what I missed and what filled my soul: water. I still go to it when I’m bored, tired, stressed. We have the bay across the street from us, so we live in the water during the summer!” she said. “I’ve been painting large-scale waterscapes for almost 15 years. The best compliment is when people tell me they ‘notice water’ and see it through my eyes. I love that.”
COMING HOME TO PENSACOLA
Webb and her husband moved their family to her hometown of Pensacola five years ago. After sixteen years of loving Birmingham, AL, the pandemic changed their lives, careers and priorities. “I sometimes tear up about moving home. It’s really hard to leave a city, friends, church and a home that you love, but during COVID — it felt like the band-aid was half off. It was the hardest and best thing I’ve ever done. And I’m eternally grateful to my husband for being on board with it,” she said.
“We realized that if we could live anywhere, why wouldn’t we live near family and also the water? I feel like such a Pensacola fangirl, and I truly think it took me being away to appreciate this city and notice the progress it has made. People keep asking me if I’m nervous about Palafox closing for a few months. I say ‘bring it’. I can’t wait to see what we do with this historic thoroughfare. There is so much synergy with the shops, restaurants and market on Palafox (and now momentum towards Baylen and Jefferson). The reasons to be downtown keep adding up. Pensacola will always support our downtown shops, and it will be so beautiful!”
“I feel like such a Pensacola fan-girl, and I truly think it took me being away to appreciate this city and notice the progress it has made.” — Sarah Soule Webb
A RISING TIDE LIFTS ALL BOATS
In her late 20s, Webb’s career was kick-started with support from family and friends — through commissions, social media shares and kind words of encouragement. It grew, allowing her to become a full-time artist with the help of collectors and designers throughout the Southeast. Now, through strategic business choices and systems that have made her career as a full-time artist more reliable, this gallery feels like the natural “next step.”
“As someone who has chosen to pave her own way in the art world (self-represent), I look forward to being a platform to promote other artists. In 2022, I did a bunch of Instagram stories at the Greater Gulf Coast Arts Festival, highlighting my favorite artists. The next week, Joe Hobbs (a talented local glass artist) told me that two out-of-state collectors bought some of his works after seeing my stories. It brought me as much joy as if I’d sold my own work! A lightbulb went on in my head, and I thought, ‘I want to own my own gallery one day,’” she said.
While this gallery has Webb’s name on it and will be mostly her work, she plans on having a “rotating featured artist” with the art connections she’s made in her life.
“I can’t wait to introduce Pensacola to more great artists, local and far away, all with a common ‘coastal’ vibe,” she said.
Webb said that as an artist who has worked with galleries, she knows how not to burn bridges with artists. She said she will have a much lower commission structure and as well as online promotion.
Coming home to her own gallery is more than a dream come true for Webb. Assisting her in this endeavor is her lifelong friend and business partner, Amelie Yonge Simmons, who handles the merchandising side of the business.
“I hope to be a platform, no, a diving board for other artists to develop their careers and find their own collectors — because we have that here in Pensacola — and a rising tide lifts all boats, no?”
“This series is an exploration of that singular, charged moment before a new endeavor begins. Poised for a dive, these women embody a quiet confidence and inhabit a state of pure potential. The layers of paint echo the concealed histories and complex emotions of these women. The question is, do they leap forward or retreat back to solid ground? For me, these portraits reflect my own journey in opening an art gallery. The same ‘Potential Energy’ that hums around these women on the precipice of a dive is the very same feeling driving this new venture. It is a leap of faith, a moment charged with the promise of what is to come. With this collection, I celebrate the courage to embrace the unknown, and the immense, exquisite beauty found in the moments right before we dive in.” — Artist Sarah Soule Webb
Want to go?
What: Sarah Soule Webb Studios
Where: 126 Palafox Place, Pensacola
Info: sswstudios.com or find Sarah Soule Webb Studios on Instagram and Facebook
