Niagara resident opens at-home art gallery with plans to take art cross-country

Feb. 6—Gunwant Sodhi wanted to do something special for his wife Harpal's birthday this year.

The two have been through a journey in their 47 years of marriage, leaving their home in India in the mid-2000s for the United States, and eventually settling in their Porter Road home near Niagara Falls International Airport.

For Harpal's upcoming 70th birthday, Gunwant bought her an Amish shed to display the art she has made over the years, from pieces made this past January to back when she was in college in the 1970s.

"There were no birthday surprises," Gunwant said.

"We have been planning this," Harpal said, whose new at-home gallery can only be viewed by appointment only.

From her early childhood in the central Indian city of Jabalpur, Harpal would draw and paint. One day when she was nine, her father held a painting competition among her and her seven brothers and sisters, which she ended up winning.

"From that day onward, I started painting and drawing more and more," Harpal said.

She would eventually go on to Rani Durgavati University in Jabalpur, earning master's degrees in English, drawing and painting, and sitar playing, going on to be a high school teacher for 20 years. She also has a Ph.D. in Fine Arts from Chaudhary Charan Singh University in Meerut, northeast of the Indian capital New Delhi.

"I didn't want to become a teacher," Harpal said. "I wanted to just be an artist, but I have to keep myself busy. From a different point of view, I need to work."

The art she created has been displayed and won awards across India, from her hometown of Jabalpur to Bhopal and Amritsar and the major cities of New Delhi and Ahmadabad. She has even had displays in Brampton, Ontario, Edison, New Jersey, and at the Niagara Arts and Cultural Center after moving to the United States.

While her school assignments and other early works focused on different aspects of Indian culture drawn realistically, Harpal's more current pieces are a more abstract style she calls mystical art. It comes from her interest in yogic meditation and spiritualism.

"It's something that comes in your subconscious mind," Harpal said, whose subjects are humans, animals, and landscapes both rural and urban. The amount of time put into creating a piece varies, with a few hours a day spent in front of the easel in the dining room.

Aside from creating and displaying art, Harpal has written two books. One is about the paintings of Pablo Picasso and Indian artist Maqbool Fida Husain and the other is a translation of the spiritual verses of Sheikh Farid, a 13th century Muslim preacher from Punjab who is revered in the Sikh faith.

In 2005, the Sodhis decided to make the move to North America, with Harpal's father and sister living in New York and her brother having a house in Niagara Falls. They first settled in New Jersey, gaining their American citizenship in 2010.

Along with visiting the brother's house in Niagara Falls, their two daughters were living in Brampton and Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, so they wanted to be closer to them. They made the move official in 2010.

Harpal found work as a substitute art and English teacher in the Niagara Falls, Grand Island, Sweet Home, Amherst, and Lewiston-Porter school districts. Gunwant has since worked management jobs for Fedex, AlliedBarton Security, Buffalo Transportation, and Imperial Textile before his most recent job of buying, developing, and selling commercial lots.

Harpal plans on retiring from her teaching work when this school year ends. Afterward, she and Gunwant plan on going across the country, showcasing the art at any exhibitions and selling pieces.

Some paintings are sold for as much as $5,000 while others are hanging in the offices or given out as gifts. Some other art hanging around the house, like one piece of the Golden Temple in Amritsar, is not for sale.

"We have never been after the money," Gunwant said.

"After all my time in school, after I come back home on Saturday, Sunday, and the holidays, I just sit down (and paint)," Harpal said.

Harpal's work can be found at http://artpicture.us.