American Artist, Sara Tole Gates, was born to an artistically and musically talented mother, and a father who was a celestial navigation instructor for the U.S. Navy during World War II. After military life, her parents chose the slower pace of Fort Smith, Arkansas, where her father owned a farm machinery dealership. The environments in which she was raised gave Sara knowledge of both rural and city life, as well as fond childhood memories of the beautiful state of Arkansas.
At a young age, Sara Tole married sculptor-painter, David Gates. The young couple lived in Dallas. Although she had excelled in math and science, her father advised her to take an interest in her husband’s work, leading her to a multi-faceted career as a commercial artist and art director for the Dr. Pepper Company. The vast knowledge she gained in the mechanical aspects of art production and printing made her a prime choice to teach at the Academy of Visual Communications, a continuing education division of Southern Methodist University.
In 1980, Sara and David opened their first gallery to showcase David’s sculpture and paintings, as well as the works of other artists. Their expertise in advertising and marketing prompted the Gates’ successful new concept of offering fast-turnaround custom framing, leading to multiple locations in the Dallas area.
In 2001, Sara opened Sara Gates Gallery & Framing. Now with 25 years of experience in the art gallery and custom framing business, national and international art dealers, publishers and artists sought to have their works represented at Sara’s galleries.
Woven through the years of commercial art, teaching, ownership and management of art galleries and commercial framing, and raising two children, Sara still found time to paint.
Paintings by Sara Tole Gates reveal her design expertise. Clients are drawn to her color palettes, compositions and unique executions. The exposure to many types of media and endless styles has inspired Sara to create a range of realistic, impressionistic, and abstract works, though her contemporary and abstract works are currently in greatest demand.
Preferring the versatility of acrylic paints that allow her to create a broad range of effects, her expertise in combining these effects is becoming her most recent focus, and probably her trademark. Textures and the rich layering of colors makes her abstracts appear to glow with warmth and tempt the viewer to sneak a touch of the fascinating variety of patterns in the paint.
In corporate and private collections, Sara signs her artwork with her maiden name to keep a promise to her dying father that she would use the family name of Tole.
Sara enjoys spending time with her children Zachary and Zoe Hannah, reading her bible, gardening, traveling and fishing.
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