ICONIC WOMAN- PUNEET MADAN

Puneet Madan is an eminent artist and educationist with international recognition. She is honoured with the title of a ‘Legendary Person in Multitasking’, she has got the Global Woman Icon Award 2022 and selected among the Top 5 Women of India- 2022, with the most inspiring life story.

A graceful and blessed personality with a different vision to look at life; has always worked for a beneficial social cause.

Puneet Madan belongs to a world-famous family who has always supported and encouraged her to experiment and explore new creative ideas.  According to her, art is the speech of expression which she takes it to be her future. She perceives art to be her inborn inspiration that comes out of the core of her feelings and is guiding her to elevated heights.

After completing her post graduation in Clothing and Textile in 1991 she had worked as a part time lecturer in different colleges in Chandigarh and Punjab and as a vocational teacher in various government schools in Chandigarh.

Puneet Madan is an inspiring story of a self-taught artist. In her majestic innovative style, she stands apart from the other contemporary artists. She started developing her hobby in art and craft in the field of needle and thread. Although she has been playing with all the traditional embroideries of India but gradually, she was mainly drifted towards Punjab’s traditional embroidery- ‘PHULKARI’ which had gone into fad after the ‘Blue Star’. Here she brought forward numerous innovative designs by merging different traditional Indian designs and paintings of Indian myth with phulkari designs.

She has trained and employed various girls and ladies from nearby villages in this field not only to help her rather to make their living economically strong. She also used to go to nearby colleges, institutions, clubs and put musical shows in rural and urban areas to make people aware of phulkari and various physiological aspects of life by giving them trainings, putting up workshops and seminars free of cost. She used to give one year training to girls under Vocational Courses in Clothing and Textile in Chandigarh. Earlier, in this period life meant hardships for her; gradually her work in phulkari blossomed and her consistent efforts to sell and display her products in exhibitions inside and outside Chandigarh, Kala-Gram in Haryana and Dilli Haat in New Delhi starting attracting huge crowds of customers.

As her innovative designs used to be copied by many craft persons so she was always forced to keep a new design in hand everyday. In this way she had developed her own styles and new patterns in Phulkari.

She has also been stitching and embroidering the whole clothing material (not only for ladies but also for gents and children) along with the ‘rumalas’ of the holy book- Guru Granth Sahib Ji of gurdwara’s of USA. She has also prepared huge wall hangings and decorative jackets for different restaurants and institutions of India and abroad.

Her consistent and devoted efforts got her many media coverages and honours and she was given the title of ‘Queen of Crafts’ in 2002 (before joining her regular job under Education Department, Chandigarh). People trained under her; have today become the earning hand of their families, some have got government jobs as Home Science teachers or have put up their boutiques, etc.

Now there is another short story of Puneet Madan how she has shifted from cloth to paper and colours. After 2002, a tremendous change occurred in her and her perceptions developed accordingly. After taking a few trainings in different artistic styles of today for example Gurmukhi Calligraphy, Resin Art, Dot Painting, Spade Art, Swirl Art, etc. she started making paintings in her free time. As she is inspired by nature’s beauty, scholars and holy people so everything she paints has a deep meaning and message in it.

Today her works are a result of vast experimentation with medium, style and technique. She is bringing a unique change in various art styles like Quilling, Calligraphy, Doodle, Mandala, etc. By merging them she has come forward with Calligraphy Ink painting, Zentangle, Typography and Dot Painting in Quilling style, Doodlemandala, Coffee, Acrylic and water colour painting via Spade art and Vector art form. Whenever she starts making any work, she finishes it in one stroke in a short time mostly from 15 minutes to 2 hours.

For which she is getting many praises and appreciations. So today she is being recognized as Ms. Puneet Madan as an ‘artist’ and with changed identity from ‘Queen of Crafts’ to ‘Queen of Innovative and Creative Skills’.

She has happily accepted this turnover. Till date many awards and honours (National & International) are being conferred on her especially from Singapore, Fiji, Japan, Nigeria, India, USA, Canada, Bangladesh, Thailand, Nepal, etc. Her name has also been accepted in the group show of Guinness World Records 2021.

Her Quilling and calligraphy artworks have also been selected in ‘BRAVO International Book of World Records Asian Sub-Continental (2020) with specification of ‘original quilling and calligraphy material ‘. Her name has also been added in ‘World Art and Artist Directory of Records’. Her originality is also being covered by different media and magazines till date.  She has received letter of appreciation from the Joint Commissioner, CGST Delhi, for her excellent performance to empower the young children and other citizens of the social strata (2020). She has come forward with 4 volumes of ebooks on her artworks which have been accepted and published by Google (2002-2021).

Today her participation is in around 200 art exhibitions and competitions and she is winning prizes in them, especially in Quilling, Coffee painting, Dot painting, Calligraphy ink painting, Typography in Quilling style, water and acrylic painting on paper and canvas. But still, she feels that she needs to make people aware of this big change in art forms after directly interacting with them in various online and offline exhibitions (National & International).

Apart from her regular donations to the needy and deserving students she is also called as a ‘mentor’ by schools and organizations to guide and give lectures to some people. She is also the member of various social organizations in Chandigarh.

Puneet Madan has not stayed back but taken a step further even during the COVID era. She has been directly interacting with people through lectures, workshops and many more (Online and Offline) in the field of art and craft, painting and teaching. She has trained and guided numerous children during this time. Her efforts have also been honoured and recognized by Bharat Vikas Parishad Chandigarh and at national and international level. She has also brought her creative and innovative art work to the society by putting up exhibitions in Mohali, Panchkula and Chandigarh.

The main idea behind her hard work and consistent effort has been to maintain the name of her family and the name of her nation at forefront. For her life is now a duty that has to be spent with devotion and happiness.