Sonal Johar

Sonal Johar is a home-scientist, and a creative person at heart. She has worked as a lecturer in Home Science in India, and as a teacher in Dubai. Originally from the pink city of Jaipur, she presently lives in Dubai. A Doctorate in Clothing and Textiles, she has always been fascinated by the traditional designs and motifs embedded in different art forms of India. She has been experimenting with the motifs from her college days. Back then, she used to design and embroider yokes for her friends. As a self-taught artist, with no formal education and background in fine arts, her keen interest in motifs is the driving force behind her passion for art.

Inspired by the Lippan art of Kutch, India, she started her art journey in the year 2012. Experimenting with different motifs, mirrors, shapes and colors worked as catalyst and gave her murals the present form. She loves to modify and integrate the traditional motifs, into her murals. The balance and harmony in her symmetric designs are a sort of meditative. With her creative ideas, she has developed her own unique style and technique, and given a refreshing dimension to Lippan art which can be incorporated into modern and contemporary interiors and architecture.

Working with mirrors is Sonal’s way of contemplating on life’s mysteries. Mirrors in her artwork are stimulating, helping to check one’s inner thoughts and emotions and in turn, stay focused, calm and composed. Her purpose she says is to “evoke the senses of the onlooker and drive them towards serenity”.

A major turn came in her art journey in the year 2015, when she experimented with another Indian traditional art form, Madhubani. Attracted by the bright colors and intricate motifs, she developed a unique style of her own to create Madhubani inspired art. She uses a basic Indian traditional motif and with her intricate designs and surface texturing with gems and stones, she has been up and coming in developing a fine bridge between arts and crafts giving an all new dimension to her piece of art.  With her visually grandiose intricate artworks, which are traditional and artistic, yet contemporary and modern, she aspires to deliver an experience of joy and pleasure to the onlooker.

A different form of Indian traditional art “Pichwai” has become yet another forte of Sonal. Having made life size paintings of Hindu diety “Shrinathji”, she has found a spiritual connection with Art. Sonal also holds a speciality in creating a fusion of different artforms.

As a passionate and driven artist, Sonal has been recognized for her Indian traditional inspired artforms in the field of art in Dubai.