Sunderland artist's Northern Lights paintings strike a chord

It was a case of life imitating art for Sunderland artist Sonia Strong as she committed the dancing Northern Lights to canvas.

Earlier this year, the artist began creating artworks of the Aurora Borealis, hoping she would one day see the dazzling display at home.

And as the resulting artworks went on show at Arts Centre Washington, amongst other pieces, that vision came true with the natural phenomenon making a rare appearance across the North East in May.

Sonia, 40, from East Herrington, said: “It was so bizarre. All around Christmas I began dreaming about seeing them in the UK and I had the vision of seeing them at home, rather than having to travel to Iceland.

“In January I became obsessed with creating Northern Lights artworks. 10 of those originals are now on display at Arts Centre Washington and all but one has sold.”

She added: “I’ve always been creative and studied A Level art, but I always wished I could explore my own ideas, rather than following a brief.”

The Northern Lights pieces are among 28 of Sonia’s on display at the centre until June 1.

Sonia specialises in oil paintings, but also uses airbrushing and mixed media in her creations.

She has long been creative, working across the creative industries as a dancer, writer and director, including writing and stage directing Tina Turner-inspired show, Tina the Rock Legend.

Sonia also spent many years working in nail art, becoming a master educator for big nail companies, specialising in airbrushing techniques.

“Nail art is very small scale and it gave me such valuable training, especially practising having a steady hand,” said Sonia.

Inspired by the likes of American artist Bob Ross, she began creating her own large-scale artworks for friends and family and it snowballed into a new outlet for her creativity.

Creativity runs in the family with Sonia’s brother, Adam Strong, currently starring as Jafar in the national tour of Disney’s Aladdin.

The Sonia Strong Exhibition at Arts Centre Washington is Sonia’s first show and she’ll be there in person on its closing day on June 1 to meet the people who’ve bought some of the pieces, with prints also available online at www.soniastrong.com

Sonia is also in talks with National Glass Centre and a gallery in Chelsea, London, about showing her work.

In another string to her artistic bow, Sonia recently released her second music album.

Entitled Chakra Cinema, it’s available on Apple Music, Amazon Music, Spotify and other streaming platforms.

Sonia said: “It is an instrumental album that has a track assigned to each of our chakras - to align and balance our minds and physical wellbeing. I did a lot of research into the keys and frequencies that each chakra resonates with.”

The artist is also working on her second vocal album, called Ultrasound and a sleep album called Sweet Dreams.